


This Illusion We've Become

by brokenhighways



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Celebrities, Crimes & Criminals, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Murder, Murder Mystery, Spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 07:58:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 55,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1975050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenhighways/pseuds/brokenhighways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even though he's been living with the prestigious Morgan family for years, Jared Padalecki has always been the outcast, save for the relationship he has with Diane Morgan, the eldest child and heir. When she's murdered brutally, Jared's forced to face up to the fact that he's on his own, while trying to solve the murder with his best friend Chad and his associate, Jensen Ackles, a medium who's able to see spirits. In the midst of that, he has to deal with being suspected of murder, being further ostracised by the Morgan family, his company being robbed, hunting down his birth parents and his tumultuous relationship with Jensen, as well the danger that continues to lie ahead. Meanwhile, Jensen’s forced to deal with the fact that he’s in love with Jared and is the only one who can communicate with Diane and help solve her murder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Written for spn_j2_bigbang's 2014 challenge!!
> 
> I had a great time working with **ldyghst** , and she's produced some amazing art, so please go and check out her post! I'd like to thank her for being super patient with me when I essentially traded in finishing my story for watching the World Cup! You're the best, bb! <3
> 
> I owe a huge thank you to **raise_the_knife** for beta-ing this for me and helping me with some of the legal stuff!  <3
> 
> And also to **anon_fan** , **soncnica** and the **people on my flist** who gave me some encouragement when I was in need of some major cheerleading! I  <3 you all!!
> 
> Last but not least, thanks to **wendy** for running the challenge!

 

 

 

## 

The day Jared turns eighteen, he packs his duffel, grabs the papers and cash he'd been given the night before, and walks out of the children's home that's been his world for as long as he can remember. He's lucky in that he's already graduated, so he at least has some flimsy piece of paper that tells the world that he's not a complete loser. Jared didn't apply to any colleges even though Diane Morgan, the only visitor he's ever had at the home, offered to pay and everything. Jared doesn't think it's wise to start life on his own by taking hand-outs. He also doesn't trust Diane. She showed up out of the blue one day when Jared was around ten years old, claiming to have once known his parents. To this day Jared doesn't believe her but it had been nice to have someone come to see him. Plus it'd shut the stupid bullies up, so he didn't really mind. Jared asked her questions about his parents sometimes and she always gave vague answers, like she wasn't comfortable talking about them. And really, why would she be?

Jared knows that he'd been given up for adoption when he was a baby, the words on his file clearly stated that his mother had handed him over to a home not long after he was born. Which is whatever really, he is fine with it. So fine that he made sure to scupper any chance he had of being adopted. Not that anyone wanted him anyway, but still, he will never give anyone a chance to abandon him again. He leaves the home behind him and that is that. As he walks down the street, he is surprised to see Diane jogging after him. He stops because from the click-clacking of her feet, she is probably wearing those crazy heels she loves so much.

"So, you're finally getting out of here," she says, a little breathlessly, when she catches up with him. “I wanted to be here to walk you out, all official like, but they told me you’d gone already. They give you any cash?” Jared shakes his head a little as she talks in her usual non-stop manner, barely giving him time to figure out what the hell to respond to. A woman walks past, eyes widening when she sees Diane. That's another reason why Jared can't bring himself to trust her. She's the adopted daughter of hotel founders Dean and Victoria Morgan and quite a well-known celebrity. Jared's read enough copies of _People_ to know that people still haven't gotten over the stigma of her being the only black member of a predominantly white family. He's also read enough to know that she has a public image to maintain. None of that really means anything to him, but no one can say that he’s ignorant.

"Okay, okay, I get it, you're in stoic silent mode while you figure out where you want to go from here." Diane's smooth voice cuts into Jared's thoughts and he looks up to see her reaching into her purse. She pulls out a cheque book and scribbles onto a page quickly before ripping it out and handing it to him. He takes it and pockets it without looking at the amount. He doesn’t refuse the money despite his firm ‘no hand-outs’ policy because he knows that she’ll find some way to get it to him. And he’d rather not sanction his own stalking.

"Thanks," he says gruffly. "I'll miss you." Despite her evasiveness, she has been the only ‘family’ he has, despite her reasons for coming; it means a lot that she’s been there for him.

"You can always come and stay with me?" Diane suggests. "I finally divorced Richard. The house is kind of lonely and my brother wants me to move back into our childhood home. Ugh." Jared smiles at her candour. She's always had no filter when it comes to him, even when he was twelve and bemused by the crazy world she seemed to live in. He'd asked her once, why she didn't just adopt him herself and she laughed and said that no one deserved _her_ as a mother. After all these years, Jared still thinks that she's wrong. He feels tears prickling at his eyes and he clears his throat.

"Maybe someday," he says with a nonchalant smirk. "I might need you to get me out of trouble.” She laughs and shakes her head and they part ways soon after.

It’s funny what they say about famous last words.

 

 

 

  


 

## 

The day after Jensen turns eighteen he wakes up to find a pretty girl sitting at the end of the bed. That might not sound unusual but Jensen is pretty sure that he hasn’t seen her before, and there's no way she was a pick up or anything because he was strictly into dick, and while he hasn’t officially come out yet, there’s no way he would bring a girl back home. He sits up slowly, ready to ask her who she is, when he notices something about her. Her skin is a pale white colour, almost translucent, as if she is not really there; a flimsy fragment of his imagination.

"What are you?" he finds himself asking, because something tells him that is the more important question. She doesn’t respond, just kicks her legs up and swings them slightly, the red sundress she's wearing cascading around her knees gently.

"Hey," Jensen calls loudly. "Who the hell are you?" He feels more than _sees_ her tense up, a cold shiver runs through him, rendering him useless for a few seconds. By the time the feeling has passed she’s facing him with curiosity painted on her face.

"You can see me?" she asks.

"No, I'm just talking to myself." Hey, Jensen never said that he was a morning person.

"Well, you are really," the girl says with a nonchalant shrug. "I've been dead for the past thirty years."

Jensen gapes at her, his mouth suddenly incapable of forming words. By the time he’s ready to talk, she has gone, the only sign of her presence being the cold chill that Jensen suddenly notices in the room. He burrows back under his covers, questions racing through his mind as he wonders if he was dreaming or hallucinating.

Later, he would look back on that moment and realise that was the day he saw his first vision.

 


	2. Part One

## 

  
Jared sighs to himself as he listens to a voicemail from Jensen, the guy he's been seeing on and off for the past year. The message feels him with dread for two reasons. One, he really wants to see Jensen but he has 'family' stuff to do instead. And two, he still hasn't managed to ditch Jensen the way he's ditched every other guy he's 'dated'. Truth be told, Jared's never been much of a relationship kind of guy. According to the therapist his sort-of-guardian Diane sent him to, he has deep seated abandonment issues that hinder his ability to form any meaningful relationships with people besides those that he is forced to interact with. That isn’t really much of a revelation at all considering the fact that he was given up as a child.  
  
Anyway, Jensen is kind of different from all the other guys Jared has been with. He seems to be as commitment-phobic as Jared is and he actually gets the whole no strings attached thing. He's perfect, hence why Jared seriously needs to end their relationship at some point. Given the way heat pooled in his stomach just at the sight of Jensen’s name, that won’t be for a while. The sex  _is_ pretty great. Unfortunately, the family stuff he’s ditching Jensen for is Diane’s birthday. She is kind of anal about her birthday and Jared owes her a lot so he sort of has to stick around. She would probably kick his ass if she knew that he felt obligated but she’s the only family he has.  
  
He’s not going to abandon her.  
  
When Jared was twenty-one, he got into a bar fight. It could have been like any other night but it wasn't. Despite the fact that he barely touched anyone, he was arrested and charged and facing jail time until he decided that his pride wasn’t worth anything if it meant not being stuck in Cell Block B, with four ugly walls for company. One call to Diane and the charges were dropped. Two years later, he ended up on probation after knocking out some creeper who was harassing his friend, Sandy. The judge had ordered him to live with a family member, but upon hearing that Jared didn’t really have any family he’d relented and agreed to allow him to stay with Diane. And well, that had been one hell of an adjustment. Though, it’s all in the past now. Jared’s thirty, and he’s put that behind him. He still lives with Diane on the account that he’d be lost without her, and he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go.  
  
Even though he’s been living here for almost seven years, the house is still the most exorbitant place that Jared's ever been in, and not just because it's the first home that he's lived in, because no matter what any licensed professional tries to tell him, the children’s home _wasn't_  ‘home’. It was a 'temporary situation' that never stopped being temporary. Not that it was all bad, it was just weird. The Morgan House (Jared didn’t pick the name, but once you called it that once, it was hard to stop) is quite grand, with a front view that resembles a French mansion, and modern furnishings inside; it's a typical extravagant, lavish, multi-bathroom affair. There’s a pool at the rear of the house and several rooms that people really don’t need to have, like a home movie theater, an-inbuilt sauna (well, okay, maybe those are allowed) and a whole bunch of other random things that Jared stays away from. He sometimes wonders why they didn’t all just move into penthouse apartments in the hotel; he wasn’t sure where the Morgans got the time to enjoy the house they spent a lot of money maintaining. According to what Jared recalls, it was something completely different before it was torn down and rebuilt. He supposes that there are pictures somewhere but no one has offered to show them to him and he doesn't particularly want to see them, but he suspects that outer beauty aside, the torn down house had a lot more going for it.

  


  
Diane’s birthday usually involves breakfast with just the two of them, which is always cool because it’s just her and Jared and they have an awesome time (unless the paparazzi gets wind of where they’re eating and they have to escape before Jared can finish his waffles). After breakfast, she goes off to do some other stuff and then they all meet back for dinner at the house, which is the part that Jared hates. He is always harassed by random strangers and journalists alike; desperate to get a scoop on the Morgans due to their fame, but none of that stuff truly bothers Jared, not even the stupid articles that try to claim that he’s Diane’s ‘boy toy’.  
  
What bothers him is that Diane’s family and the rest of the people he lives with generally think that he is some no-good scrounger who’s after her money. Diane continues to insist that he keep quiet about her visiting him at the home he grew up in, so they don’t know about all of that; not that it’s any of their business. Still, Jared wonders why she doesn’t just come out and tell them, especially if she ever wants them all to get along. Jared generally tries his hardest to spend as little time with them as possible, but he always sucks it up for Diane’s birthday dinner because she wants them all to be together on her special day.  
  
Jared first gets the sense that something is off this year when he gets to Diane’s room and she’s dressed in sweats, with her dark hair piled high on her head in a messy bun. She looks like she’s come from a run, but Diane doesn’t  _run_  and her purse is next to her on the bed.  
  
“Happy Birthday!” Jared says brightly, while he knocks on the door. Diane looks up at him and smiles, though it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. Jared doesn’t mention it; if she wants to talk about whatever’s wrong, she will in her own time.  
  
“Thanks, Jared,” she says quietly. “Are you ready to go?”  
  
“ _I_  am,” he says. “But I don’t think you are. You’re wearing  _sneakers_. I wasn’t aware that you knew what those were.” She swats him gently with her purse as she stands.  
  
“I’m going for the casual breakfast look this year,” she says. “Seems pointless to get all done up when I have a spa date later on.” Jared isn’t buying it but he lets it go. He regrets doing so half an hour later when they’re sitting in a quaint little Venetian-themed cafe. He is seriously enjoying his waffles when he realised that Diane hasn’t said much and she’s was picking at her food instead of eating it.  
  
“What’s wrong?” he asks finally. “Is this about you turning forty-eight? Because you don’t look a day over twenty-one.” She cracks a small smile at that but like before, it doesn’t reach her eyes. Jared sets his fork down. He isn’t really good at this talking stuff, getting people to open up to him, mostly because he hated doing both of those things himself, but talking is supposed to be important, right? He can manage it just this once.  
  
“Nothing,” she says, causing Jared to give her look of disbelief. “I’m just not in the best of moods today. Sorry.” Jared bites back the ‘ _you don’t say’_ threatening to escape from his lips.  
  
“Why, what’s up?”  
  
“Just drop it, Jared. Please.” Despite the chatter in the cafe, it suddenly feels very quiet as the tension between them grows. He’s starting to get annoyed because if she’s going to be stuffy and evasive, why are they even here? She takes out her phone and fiddles with it for a few minutes before dropping it back into her purse. Jared watches her silently and she looks back up at him, the expression on her face lets Jared know that he probably won’t like what she says next.  
  
“How’s work going?” Jared bites his lip. Work isn’t going so great. He owns his own landscaping company and he hasn’t gotten any new clients in a while. He received a tentative order earlier on the week that seemed way too good to be true, but he’s crossing his fingers anyway. He hasn’t told Diane about the issues because she’s his ‘investor’ if you like, and he doesn’t want her to be disappointed with his shortcomings.  
  
“It’s fine.” Jared finds himself lying because she already looks like she’s miserable as fuck, he doesn’t want to make it worse, or put himself in the firing line. “We’re raking in a ton of money. Might even make Forbes next year.” And okay, maybe he doesn’t need to be so snarky, but her bad mood is starting to rub off on him.  
  
“You do realise that as an investor, I look at the accounts regularly to see what’s going on?” Jared is regretting not taking Jensen up on his offer more and more by the second. “I might not be Einstein, but the numbers don’t lie, Jared.” Jared rolls his eyes at that because he knows for a fact that Diane doesn’t actually look at the books herself. That’s what her million and one interns and assistants are for.  
  
“Look, it’s your birthday,” he replies. “Can we not do this today?” Diane glances at her phone again and Jared wonders what’s so important that she needs to take it out every two minutes.  
  
“I’m meeting Jeff for a late lunch later,” she informs him suddenly. “Do you want to come along?”  
  
Jared almost snorts into his orange juice. “I definitely do not want to come. Why don’t you take Matt with you? You guys can have a grand old time.”  
  
“Matt’s got his own thing going on,” Diane says, her tone frostier than it was seconds ago. “With his wife. You would know that if you made an effort, but then again, you couldn’t even be bothered to show up to his wedding so why am I surprised?” Jared’s heard this song and rhyme before. Jeff and Matt are Diane’s younger brothers. Jeff was adopted as well, but Matt was the result of a ‘happy accident’. Diane’s mother was deemed infertile, hence the adoptions, and was surprised when she found out that she was pregnant with Matt, who Jared doesn’t trust. There is just something off about him. He acts like he was some kind of Jaeger hound despite the fact that he’s on the wrong side of 25 and also  _married_. Plus, they share a mutual distaste for one another so really, distrust is just par for the course.  
  
“I am fed up of bailing you out all the fucking time,” Diane is still talking when Jared tunes back in and he can see the other customers staring at them. When he spots someone filming them ‘discreetly’ on their iPhone he knows that it is time to go. Diane, however, is in full-steam-ahead mode and she shuts down his attempts to interrupt. “Jeff can sort you out next time, because I am done with all of this.” Diane dotes on Jeff, and refuses to believe that her brother doesn’t really care for him. Not that Jared blames her; Jeff is awfully good at pretending when she’s around. Sometimes he is so good at it that Jared thinks that he might come around, but the second they’re alone it is back to silent stares, snide comments and judging eyes.  
  
“If Jeff had his way, I’d be living on a street corner with plastic bags for company,” Jared snaps. “He. Doesn’t. Like. Me. Why is it so hard for you to believe that?”  
  
“Jeff is a good man, Jared,” Diane says. “I’m just sorry that you can’t see it; maybe you will one day. Maybe tomorrow, even. I will be having words with him at lunch.”  
  
“Right, you’re going to  _make_  him be nice to me,” Jared retorts. “Good luck with that. Never mind that all of this could be avoided if you just told the truth about where you met me. But that’ll never happen. You haven’t even told  _me_  that. The truth.”  
  
Diane gasps. It would have been comical if Jared wasn’t angry. “I told you right from the start that I knew your parents.” Her voice is low, as if she is suddenly aware that they could easily be overheard.  
  
“I’ve asked you for names, addresses, anything, over the past twelve years and I’ve gotten nothing,” Jared replies, his own voice dropping in sound. He doesn’t want his personal details splashed across  _Star_ magazine any more than she does. “Nothing. And I know you know how important this is - you have contact with  _your_ birth family after all. Why don’t you just admit that I was your charity case? You were recently divorced, had way too much time and money on your hands, and thought that you knew what I was going through. Just admit it.”  
  
“That’s not true!”  
  
“Whatever,” Jared says. “If you’re done with me - I’m done with you. You don’t need to cushion it and try and palm me off on Jeff. I’m a grown man and I can fend for myself. In fact, I *have* been fending for myself, but I’ve also been trying to fit the mould that you made for me and I can’t do that anymore. I hate landscaping, but I did it anyway, so that I could maybe show you that I’m good at something. So if you’re done, I’m definitely done.”  
  
“Look...it’s complicated,” Diane says, her voice soft and low. Jared can tell that she's trying to calm him down. “You’re right. I’ve been lying to you about some things, but only to protect you.”  
  
“I don’t need protecting.”  
  
Diane laughs sadly. “Everybody needs protecting, honey. We’re our own worst enemies.”  
  
Before Jared can ask her what the hell that means, the waiter stops by to offer them refills, clearly more interested in their conversation than pouring coffee.  
  
They leave soon after that.  
  
  


  
  
Jared spends the rest of the day at work trying to understand why they seem to be losing money like it's going out of fashion, "trying" being the operative word because he sucks at math and has no idea what most of these numbers mean. He has an upcoming meeting with his accountant, Amy, but she's also Matt’s wife and he had no doubt that she’ll deliver her verdict with an upturned nose, a scowl and a snarky comment that means nothing to him. He's glad for the respite when Aldis, the Morgan family doctor, stops by at around five to pick him up. Aldis is a pretty cool guy. Jared always finds it weird that he’s basically a ‘live-in’ doctor, but technically, he and his wife Katie stay in one of the extensions of the main house so maybe it doesn’t count. Aldis and Katie don’t have a problem with Jared, thankfully, and he’s always grateful for their presence for events like this. The infamous birthday dinner always ends up with drunken antics, and no shortage of judgement, but Aldis usually has his back.  
  
The house is full to the brim with people, because apparently Dean and Victoria Morgan loathed the thought of an empty house. What was the point of having a ridiculous amount of rooms if no one occupied them? Jared thinks that the solution to that conundrum would be reducing the number of rooms as opposed to adding more people to the mix, but Diane's never seen it that way, and it's her birthday, not his. All in all there are fourteen guests invited to the dinner (and it's the lowest it's been in a couple of years).  
  
Obviously Jared's going to be there, along with Diane, Jeff, Matt and Amy. Along with Danneel, Diane's personal assistant, Megalyn (the family lawyer), Aldis and Katie, Sterling (a cousin of Diane’s on her birth mother’s side), Samantha Smith (Jeff’s assistant), Sam Ferris (the family cook), Tom Welling (the gardener), Frieda, the live-in maid, Richard, Diane’s ex-husband, Mark Sheppard (a journalist who seemed to have some sort of deal with Jeff considering the number of exclusives he got at the Morgan Hotel chains in the city) and Kim Rhodes, Diane’s on and off best friend.  
  
 _All_  of those people were going to be at dinner. Jared knows that because he sent out the invites himself. The party planner (or dinner planner?) wanted to tack on an extra $1200 for invites which Jared finds ridiculous and frivolous even for a family that has more wealth than they can spend in a lifetime. Jared personally doesn’t understand Diane’s need to surround herself with so many people for the sake of her birthday. His birthdays typically involve a six-pack and whatever the hell is on the box.  
  
Once they get back to the house, Aldis goes his way and Jared goes up to his room to get changed. He stays in the main house because he was forced to originally as part of his probation, and then it just stuck. The room is  _home_ to him, which is kind of sad in a way but Jared doesn’t dwell on it because he’s luckier than most people. He changes into his suit and makes his way downstairs. He hasn’t heard from Diane since the morning and while he  _wants_  to apologise, he is still way too angry to actually go and do it. He decides to wait until tomorrow when they don’t have this dinner lingering over them.  
  
Everyone, bar Jeff, is seated and waiting by six-fifty-five, five minutes before Diane is due to make her grand entrance. Jared can’t help but stare at the mutilated piece of fabric that was masquerading as Samantha’s hat. He shudders inwardly, he’s  
no fashion expert but who wears a hat to an indoor dinner anyway? She notices him looking, her blue eyes widening slightly as a startled expression graces her face. Jared looked away, not interested in getting into a stare-off with her. Time passes by and he finds himself making conversation with Aldis, who looks equally as off-put by the number of people around the table. At seven-ten, Jeff hurries in and takes his seat. He pressed a kiss to Samantha’s cheek, intimately brushing away a stray wisp of her blonde hair, and Jared raises an eyebrow in surprise; Diane hasn’t mentioned anything about them dating. She probably isn’t even really Jeff’s assistant but Diane isn’t Samantha’s biggest fan for whatever reason, Jared has never asked for an explanation because people didn’t need a reason to hate people. Sometimes that was just how life was.  
  
“Hey, Padalecki,” Mark Sheppard calls from where he’s sitting a few places down. “Where’s your girlfriend? It’s not like her to turn up late for her own birthday party.” A few laughs break out amongst the guests and Jared rolls his eyes. Mark  _is_ right though, it is unlike Diane. He doesn’t move though, thinking that Jeff or Matt will go and check on her, or maybe even her assistant. However Jeff is talking to Samantha, Matt’s having a heated discussion with Amy and Danneel’s typing away on her phone furiously, no doubt tweeting about her latest pair of shoes. Jared isn’t even being snide with that comment, she literally has the biggest shoe collection that he’s ever seen, and he’s seen Diane’s.  
  
“I guess that I’ll be the one to see what the holdup is,” Jared says to no one in particular as he stands up, his chair legs screeching against the hardwood floor slightly.  
  
“You might as well earn your pay somehow,” Matt says. Jared ignores him in favour of leaving the room.

  


  
The upper level of the house is eerily quiet, what with everyone being downstairs in the dining room. Someone has switched off all of the lights, which was weird. Usually they stayed on so that people could see where they were going. Jared flips on one of the landing switches as he goes by, but nothing happens.  _Huh_ , he thinks, maybe a fuse had blown somewhere. He continues on his way, ignoring the sense of dread that’s creeping up inside of him. It really isn’t like Diane to hold everyone up or worse,  _abandon_  her own party. Plus she’s been acting so weird this morning, and all of what she’d wasn’t been her speaking, not really. Jared knows that much; he’d known it back then, he was just blinded by his own anger and things spiralled out of control. Jared shakes his head slightly as he approaches her door; now isn’t the time to think about this. He has to get Diane and drag her downstairs so they can get this torturous dinner over and done with. The lights flick on so abruptly that Jared spins around, but there’s no one behind him. He turns back around and is just about to enter when he sees it.  
  
There is a bloody handprint on the door.  
  
Jared’s heart begins to pound violently in his chest, and he stumbles forward and pushes the door open gently.  
  
What he sees makes his blood go cold.

  


  
There’s a quiet murmur around the room as the news filters around. Jared’s back in the dining room, watching as different kinds of cops parade in an out, of the hallway, with plastic bags and their latex gloves and grim expressions. His right hand is still covered in blood – not his, but Diane’s. She’s dead. Gone. Jared can vividly recall the moment he called out to her, how silent it was before he pushed the door open; he can remember seeing her lying there, with an expanding blood patch in the center of her midriff, staining the white evening dress she’d spent hours picking. Jared knows because she’d tricked him into going, the same way she always did. The way she’d never do again. To make things worse, the divide that Diane hated so much is still very obvious in the room. Apart from Richard, all the dinner guests are huddled around Matt and Jeff, offering condolences that Jared is apparently not entitled to.  
  
“Well, this sucks,” Richard finally tries to break the silence between them, with the most inane comment that Jared’s ever heard. He levels a glare at Richard. “Yeah, I’ll just…stop talking.” Jared looks away with a soft sigh. He can’t even bring himself to get angry; this isn’t Richard’s fault. He’s so busy looking down at his feet that he doesn’t hear Jeff approach. His eyes are tinged red, and he looks as wrecked as Jared feels, except there’s a fire burning behind his eyes.  
  
“This had something to do with you, didn’t it? I heard about your little fight this morning.” His words are harsh and angry and Jared’s not in the mood. Not when Diane’s body is barely cold. Within a few seconds, he’s up in Jeff’s face, shoving the other man back violently, not caring about the police swarming around.  
  
“Get the hell away from me,” he hisses. “Before I make you.” Jeff takes a step back, glancing towards the guests milling around them.  
  
“See? He  _does_  have a violent streak,” he announces. “What is they say? 9 out of 10 victims knew their killer personally?”  
  
Richard steps forward and rolls his eyes. “Give it a rest, Jeff. I’ve seen you throw punches for no good reason.”  
  
“Who even invited you, Richard?” Jeff asks in despair. “Why are you here? Are you here for another hand-out? Did you two conspire together to get rid of my sister?”  
  
“Yeah,” Richard says dryly. “We got together in the Bat-cave and came up with a genius plan that puts us at the scene of the crime  _at_  the time of the murder.”  
  
“Like you’d even be smart enough to plan anything,” Jeff snipes. Jared can tell that it’s Jeff’s way of dealing with the news, but he hopes that someone moves the other man away from him before he’s forced to shut him up with his fists. Jared’s not sure how good his self-control is at the moment.  
  
Luckily, he gets his wish when one of the detectives calls him over to ask him some more questions. Jared’s been arrested enough times to know when he’s being suspected of something, even if the cops don’t come out and say that. He answers the questions, detailing how he’d gone to check on her, found her, stuff that he’s already said to some other cop but whatever. If hearing it five hundred fucking times helps them solve the case then he’ll answer as many questions as they like.  
  
“One last question for now, Padalecki,” Kane says after what seems like an age. “Did Diane say what he plans for the day were when you parted ways?”  
  
Jared frowns. “She was supposed to be meeting Jeff for lunch. Didn’t he tell you?”  
  
“Mr Morgan says that he hasn’t spoken to the deceased since the morning,” Kane says absent-mindedly as he takes down Jared’s answer in the small notebook that he’s been carrying. “That’ll be all for now. Thanks for your time.”  
  
Jared barely notices him leaving; he’s too busy eyeing Jeff, suspicion heavy in his mind.


	3. Part Two

  


## 

  
Jensen Ackles is a private investigator. Or rather, he’s a medium who sometimes (okay,  _always_ ) uses his skills as a medium to help people solve crimes that involve the dead. Being a private investigator at least sounds like a legitimate job title and gets him access to a lot more stuff than he would if he introduced himself as a regular guy who’s trying to solve shit. Truth be told, it was the only job that he could do without going all out and becoming an actual  _medium_  that charges for their otherworldly powers and sniffs energy crystals or whatever. Not that Jensen has anything against those mediums – after all he is one himself, whether or not he likes to admit it. He just doesn’t want any labels added on to him, and most of the spirits that he comes across were looking to get to ‘the other side’ (wherever that was), so private investigation worked well for him. He isn’t shirking his medium duties. He works in a tiny office/his living room with his assistant, Chad, usually in conjunction with the police. Jensen’s daily routine usually involves coffee, going for a run, picking up the paper, heading to his office and depending on whatever “case” he’s working on, he goes around town. Today, his routine is disrupted at the coffee stage. Chad is waiting for him downstairs on the couch. This isn’t a surprise. Jensen’s office is located in his house and Chad has a key. What  _is_  surprising was how early Chad is.  
  
“Jared’s been pulled in for questioning,” is all Chad says by way of explanation when Jensen asks him what he was doing here. Jensen’s first instinct is to raise an eyebrow. Jared Padalecki is a little bit of an enigma to Jensen. He’s very much a bad boy type of man, the kind that said they didn’t want a long term relationship when their eyes said differently (and when Jensen went along and agreed with it because he was masochistic and a danger to himself) and the kind that wears leather jackets and tight jeans when really they long for loose-fitting pants and a sweatshirt but think they’ll seem less intimidating if they wear them. Jensen doesn’t believe that he’s ever really seen the  _real_  Jared. Just the tiny little pieces that slip through the cracks and the parts that he can see just because he sometimes sees a lot more than most. Not that he had ever really had an opportunity to ‘see’ anything. They initially met at Chad’s behest and ‘dated’ (that was the official story, because Chad has no idea that they’d been sneaking around after they told him that a relationship between the two of them was not on the cards) before moving onto a sort of friends-with-benefits-booty-call type of deal. Jensen tries to tell himself that he doesn’t mind that much, not really. It turns out that being able to communicate with spirits is a real downer when it comes to dating someone. Jensen was always running out on his exes and blowing them off because he was too afraid to tell them the truth. He hasn’t told Jared either, but Jared doesn’t expect anything from him, hence why Jensen keeps calling and hooking up with him.  
  
They’re just having some pure, harmless fun together.  
  
However, the fact that he is a teeny bit (okay,  _very much_ ) in love with Jared kind of means that Jensen’s just really good at lying to himself. It wasn’t really a conscious decision; he didn’t just suddenly fall in love with the guy he fucked on a regular basis. It just happened. Jensen sees something in Jared that he doesn’t ever want to let go of, to the point where he is willing to carry on pretending that their ‘relationship’ is the very definition of  _no strings attached_.  
  
“What for?” Jensen asks, snapping out of his thoughts when Chad doesn’t offer up any more information. While he and Jared don’t really talk about deep, emotional stuff, he knows that Jared had a bit of a criminal history, so it’s not like this was the first time he’s been arrested. It probably isn’t anything serious.  
  
“Diane Morgan is dead. Jared found her in her room last night. She’d been stabbed. They think he might have had something to do with it.” Jensen tenses up as Chad looked at him grimly. Murder? Chad has to be fucking with him. “  
  
“What?” Jensen says incredulously. This is insane. “Wasn’t it her birthday yesterday? She was…I mean,  _how_ does something like that even happen?!”  
  
“Yeah,” Chad sighs. “It’s a shock to me as well, man.”  
  
“Okay well – none of that’s enough to suspect Jared of anything,” Jensen says, deciding to process the fact that she is dead much, much later. “She could have been dead before he got there.”  
  
“She was,” Chad confirms. “The crime scene guys pretty much said she’d been dead for at least half an hour before Jared even stood up to go and get her. The problem is that there were at least twenty of them at the house last night and any one of them could have killed her, but only  _one_  of them has a criminal record.”  
  
“And that’s Jared,” Jensen sighs. “What is he going to do?”  
  
“Well, they haven’t charged him yet and I doubt that they will,” Chad says. “Which is why I’m here, I need a favour…” Jensen blinks a few times before moving to sit in one of the armchairs. It’s weird to see Chad being so serious. Chad is a qualified lawyer, but he doesn’t practice because he’s quote ‘way too chill to spend his time in court sucking up to someone wearing an ugly wig’ unquote.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“I need you follow me to the Morgan House and investigate the murder,” Chad says bluntly. “You might be able to see Diane and help clear Jared’s name.”  
  
“Even if I do see her or connect with her, how are we going to be able to prove anything?” Jensen queries  
  
“We’ll worry about that later.”

  


  
The papers have headlines that scream news of Diane’s death, news channels have never ending rolling coverage, social networks are abuzz; in short, there is pandemonium. In contrast, the Morgan House is eerily quiet as Chad drives into the compound. Jensen hasn’t agreed to this impromptu investigation yet because he doesn’t think that Chad is thinking clearly. While their success rate isn't bad, they're not Perry Mason, or quirky doctors who somehow have time to solve high-profile murders. This is kind of out of their league. Secondly, any of the people living at the house could potentially be a murderer. And, last but not least, the house is still a crime scene.  
  
“Technically it isn’t anymore,” Chad says as he leads Jensen up the stairs. Jensen ignores the thrill that flutters inside him at the thought of seeing Jared’s room. It's inappropriate for God’s sake. “With a high profile case like this, the P.D. won’t take their time about it, they’ll be scrutinised pretty closely over the next few weeks.” Jensen nods even though Chad couldn’t see him. Truth be told he's a little overwhelmed by this all. Sure, he sometimes investigated murders, but usually of people who’d been dead for decades or once, centuries. He’d never investigated a three day-old death before.  
  
“ _God, look at all the muddy tracks on the stairs_ ,” a voice says suddenly when they reach the landing. “ _Would it kill people to wipe their damn feet before they come in here_?”  
  
“Might wanna invest in a sign,” Jensen replies before he can stop himself. Chad turns around and gives Jensen a quizzical look.  
  
“Who are you talking to?” he asks. “Is she here? Can you see her?” The intensity of his gaze makes Jensen feel a little flustered but he humours Chad by taking a look around. It doesn't take him long to spot her. She has the same ethereal, translucent look about her that these spirits normally do, but the bright aura around her tells Jensen that she perhaps doesn't know she's dead. It happens sometimes. He continues to stare at her, noting the long, cream chiffon dress she is wearing and the large red patch on the stomach area. She catches his gaze and looks down, and Jensen hears her gasp. He can feel Chad’s eyes on him, but he has to comfort her first. Before shit gets crazy.  
  
“My name is Jensen,” he says calmly when he reaches her. “I’m here to help you.”  
  
“Jensen—“Jensen cuts Chad off with a raised hand.  
  
“ _Jensen…wait, Jensen as in Jared’s Jensen?”_ Diane says, in a calmer tone than Jensen's expecting. “ _I’ve heard a lot about you_.”  
  
“Uh…yes, I’m a friend of his,” Jensen says “And I’m sorry to have to say this to you but—“  
  
“ _I’m dead_?” Diane interrupts, and is that amusement in her voice? “ _Yeah, I got that memo, honey, when I woke up with a huge knife sticking out of my stomach_.” That happened sometimes. Sometimes the spirits awoke to find that an echo of their murder weapons had passed on with them.  
  
He supposes that the aura symbolizes something else.  
  
“Do you know who killed you?” he asks. Jensen’s learnt that sometimes that question is best asked directly. She pauses, head cocked to one side as she appears to be thinking about it.  
  
“No,” she said after a brief moment. “I know that it wasn’t Jared. I saw him when he found me – and he just broke—and well, it wasn’t him. But you already knew that, didn’t you?” She gives him a knowing look and Jensen feels his face flush.  
  
“Take care of him for me, won’t you?” she says before she disappears into thin air.  
  
Jensen knows that she’ll be back.  
  
“Well, what did she say?” Chad asks desperately when Jensen turns back towards him. “Does she know who it was?”  
  
“No, she doesn’t,” Jensen replies. “She did say that it wasn’t Jared, but we can’t always take a spirit’s word for things. Even though they’re dead, they still have their emotions and memories. Her close ties to Jared could be blanketing the truth.”  
  
Chad glares at him. “I love you like a brother man, but seriously, shut the fuck up. You know as well as I do that Jared didn’t do this. He loved Diane. She was his  _family_.” Without further ado, Chad marches further down the landing and rounds a corner, his steps quick and angry. Jensen practically has to jog to keep up with him. Maybe he was out of line saying that, but it’s the truth and Chad knows it. However, Jensen realises that has to be impartial if he wants to help Jared, and Chad’s aware of that too. He supposes that it’s just going to be something they don’t talk about.  
  
“Shouldn’t we knock?” Jensen asks as Chad grabs a hold of the doorknob. Chad rolls his eyes and enters Jared’s room. Jensen follows him in, eyes immediately locating Jared who’s huddled up beneath his covers, with a few tufts of dark brown hair poking out from the top of the comforter the only indication that it’s him under there. Jensen suddenly feels like he is intruding Jared’s personal space and decides to remain by the door.  
  
“Jared, it’s me?” Chad says gently. “I brought Jensen with me.” There is no movement and Chad sighs heavily. At that moment, his cell phone goes off and he exits the room, mumbling something about being back in a few minutes. That leaves Jensen alone with Jared and even though they’ve been on their own many, many times, it still feels awkward and uncomfortable. Jensen can’t just come out and tell Jared that he’s seen Diane but he doesn’t know what else he can say that will make Jared feel better.  
  
To his surprise, Jared sits up once Chad leaves.  
  
“Hey,” he says softly when his eyes connect with Jensen’s. He looks terrible; his face is pale and his eyes are puffy and red, as though he’s been crying all night. There are dark rings under his eyes and Jensen is reminded that Jared spent the past evening under the intense scrutiny of the police before Chad arrived at the house.  
  
“Hey, yourself,” Jensen says. “How are you holding up?” Jared smiles grimly and shrugs  
  
“We got into an argument,” Jared says after a brief silence. “I told her that I was done with her. That was one of the last things I said to her. It’s…my fault that she’s dead.” Jensen can’t stop himself from rushing to comfort Jared, even though he isn’t sure if it was his place. It just pained him to see Jared aching and distraught over the loss of the one person who’d been constant in his life. Not that Jared has told him that, but Chad has, and Jensen tends to soak up facts about Jared like he is a well perforated sponge.  
  
“It’s not your fault,” Jensen tells Jared as he perches on the edge of the bed and grabs one of Jared’s hands. The action is new, but the way an electric current travels down his spine is not. He can tell that Jared feels it too by the way he shivers slightly. Their eyes catch and Jensen feels this pull, this need to lessen the space between them and kiss Jared as if his life depends on it. He can’t act on his desire, however, not when Jared is so vulnerable. Jensen pulls back a little. “I know that this won’t make you feel better, but she knew that you loved her, and that’s all that matters.” It is true, really. Jensen has a lot of experience dealing with family members who are racked with guilt over their last words with the deceased. A lot of the time, the spirits don't even care, they are just happy to have one last interaction with their loved ones. Nine times out of ten, the ill feeling doesn't follow them into the afterlife; they are usually more hurt over the fact that they’ll never be able to laugh it off and apologise. Jensen obviously can’t tell Jared that because while Chad knows about his abilities, he doesn't want it getting out right now. It would be a disaster for everybody.  
  
“You’re right, I know that, but I can’t help think that if we’d made up, she’d still be alive,” Jared says.  
  
“I wouldn’t have been sitting down there with all of those people when she was up here dying.” Jensen notes Jared’s use of the word people. He knows that Jared doesn’t really like living in this house, and judging by the vitriol in his tone, he doesn’t really like any one of the other inhabitants. Jensen gets the feeling that Jared won’t be budging for the foreseeable future though.  
  
“What do you think happened to her?” Jensen asks. “I mean, why would anyone want to kill her?”  
  
Jared sighs wearily, his fingers tracing a pattern against Jensen’s hand slightly. “Honestly? I don’t know. She had some ex-friends, and people who didn’t like her, but no more than the next person. I can’t think of any reason why anyone would want her dead.” Chad re-enters the room before Jensen can respond, with a grim look on his face.  
  
“Cops are here. They’re ready to talk to Jared.” Chad’s arranged for them to come to the house so they can avoid the media storm outside. In this day and age, there’s no way that the paparazzi won’t be all over this incident, especially so soon after it's occurred.

  


  
Jensen is familiar with the detective assigned to the case – Christian Kane, but only by name. He is supposedly a hard ass who likes to wrap cases up quickly, whether he's got the right man or not. Right now he appears to be doing his best to pin everything on Jared.  
  
“You were spotted arguing with the victim on the day that she died,” Detective Christian Kane says as he paces around Jared’s seat at the dining table. “Onlookers heard you saying that you were “done” with her.” Is that true?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jared says. Chad writes down something in the small pocketbook he’d brought with him as Jensen stares on. This whole situation is still a little surreal to him. Apparently none of the other Morgans pay Jared any attention for the most part. He doesn’t understand why Jared didn’t just move out once his probation was up (and that was another new fact that Chad had sprung on him today).  
  
“I’m going to need you to elaborate, Mr Padalecki,” Kane says. “What were you arguing about?”  
  
“You don’t have to answer that, Jared,” Chad says, ignoring Kane's a dirty look.  
  
“Fine,” Kane says. “Did you notice anything suspicious in the hours before you discovered the victim?”  
  
“She has a fucking name!” Jared is animated suddenly, raw anger present on his face as he glares at Kane. Jensen puts a hand on Jared’s arm to calm him down and bizarrely enough, it seems do the trick. Jared repeats that Diane has a name and Kane apologised and begins to say ‘Diane’ instead of 'the victim'. There is another flurry of questions after that but Jensen tunes out when he feels a familiar cold chill spread across the room.  
  
She's back.  
  
“ _Aren’t you some sort of detective_?” Diane says from where she was perched on the table. The patch of blood on her dress was still a crimson red. It won’t fade for a while, at least not until her murderer is caught. The universe is funny that way. Jensen shakes his head at her and mouths ‘not now’. She doesn't say anything after that, she just watched in silence. There's an almost pained expression on her face, a sense of bewilderment as she listens and tries to process everything. In the end Jensen looks away, and lets her have her moment.

  


Jensen is glad to escape the Morgan house when evening hits and the police file out. Jared goes back up to his room without so much as a goodbye and the rest of the people in the house are nowhere to be seen. It gives Jensen a hollow feeling inside.  
  
“I don’t think I can help you with this one,” he tells Chad on the ride back. “There are at least fourteen murder suspects. Fourteen. And these people are crazy, Chad. I don’t do crazy. Well, I do, I guess, but within reason. I’m just a regular guy who helps old grandmas and residual spirits from cold cases move on to a better place.”  
  
“I feel like you putting old before grandmas is redundant,” Chad says.  
  
“You clearly have not been watching  _16 and Pregnant_ ,” Jensen retorts.  
  
“Look, Jensen, I need your help, okay? I’m one of Jared’s only friends and if we don’t keep him occupied, he’s going to spiral out of control and end up God knows where. I could wait for you to come around but we just don’t have that time.”  
  
“Why would I come around?” Jensen asks. Usually, if he says he doesn't want to take a case, they move onto the next one. Of course, it's different this time, but still. It's his choice.  
  
“You’re in love with Jared,” Chad says. “Don’t think I don’t know that the two of you have been carrying on behind my back. Plus, you get this look in your eyes any time I mention him.” Jensen rues the fact that he spends so much time with Chad; it seems silly to think that he wouldn't have noticed. Yet, he and Jared liked the thrill of hiding or. Well, Jensen did at one point. Lately he's been wondering...  
  
“Does he feel the same way?” Jensen can’t help asking, though he loathes the way he sounds like an overexcited teenager. He doesn't expect anything of Jared; they were both very clear about what they expected from their ‘relationship’ from the get go.  
  
“Jared…doesn’t do relationships,” Chad says and somehow it sounds a lot worse than a simple 'no'. “I mean, I set you guys up and you still ended up with your fuck buddy deal. If you’re happy with that, I’m happy with that. I just hope that you know what you’re doing. Don’t get me wrong, he does like you a lot, Jensen. There’s no way he’d still be uh, hanging out with you if he didn’t. He’s very much a love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of guy.”  
  
That’s nothing that Jensen doesn’t already know.  
  
“Okay,” he says tiredly, deciding not to wait and suffer through Chad cajoling him into helping with Diane's murder. “Fine. You’ve got me. I’ll help. The best place for us to start is obviously the connection between Diane and Jared. The cops probably have access to more information than we do, but is there anything you know?”  
  
Chad shrugs slightly as they approached a stop light. “Just that she bailed him out and helped him when he was put on probation. He didn’t really talk about it much.”  
  
“And the rest of the people living at the house had no lost love for Jared,” Jensen murmurs. “We’ll have to look into all of them. Jared says that Jeff was the last person to the table. Run a background check on him and see what you can dig up.”  
  


  
Diane's funeral takes place almost a week after she dies. Apparently Morgan money equals an extremely quick autopsy. The toxicology report will take a little longer, however. Jensen finds it weird that they're going to put her in the ground without identifying what actually killed her. Yes, she was stabbed but he gets the feeling that something else happened to her. He doesn't get intuitions much, but it's supposedly a component of the whole medium thing. He could ask her the next time she appears, but typically that sort of thing doesn’t go down well. Questions that make the spirits try and recall certain thing sometimes leads to adverse reactions. Kind of like, windows being blown out and things catching fire  _adverse_.  
  
" _I hope they don't put me in black_ ," Diane emerges suddenly as Jensen tugs at his tie while waiting for Jared to get ready. " _I hate wearing black_." She startles him and Jensen feels that familiar sensation he gets around spirit; a moment where he feels awkward in his own skin. Jensen doesn't know what to say to her. In fact he wants to be as far away from her as possible. He didn't know her. Why is he going to her funeral? For Jared, his mind supplies, but Jensen decides that's not a good enough reason to impose. He stands up and leaves Jared's room.  
  
" _Leaving so soon?_ " Jensen jumps as Diane appears in front of him. There really is a lot of blood smeared into her dress.  
  
"I'm sorry," he whispers quietly before dodging past her and heading for the stairs.

  


  
Jensen doesn’t really go far. He drives out of the estate and pulls over after fifteen minutes. Driving around while he’s this unfocused doesn’t seem wise. He parks on the edge of an unfamiliar street, head resting against the window as he decides what to do. He’s tired, he realises. Tired of seeing the dead. Tired of rarely having a moment to himself. And now all of this with Jared has happened and Jensen is tired of this unrequited love affair. He’s well into his inner-soliloquy when the silence is disrupted by the sound of his phone vibrating and Jensen forces himself to check it. Chad’s called him three times but Jensen doesn’t want to speak to him right now.  
  
Of course it’s not Chad this time, the phone display reads:  _Jared calling_.  
  
Huh, Jensen thinks. This is a surprise. He feels as if he’s always the one calling Jared, and heck, he probably is. Sometimes he just can’t help himself.  
  
“Hey,” he says quietly once he’s answered.  
  
“Hey, Jensen,” Jared replies hesitantly. Jensen wonders if Chad put Jared up to this call, he wouldn’t put it past him. It’s not like Jared cares whether or not Jensen is present or not. At least Jensen doesn’t think he would; sometimes (okay, a  _lot_  of the time) he really can’t tell what’s going on in Jared’s mind. “We’re on our way to the service now.”  
  
Jensen bites at his lip. “Yeah…I, uh, sorry for bailing…I just, thought that it might be better if you and your family have this day without some stranger butting in.”  
  
Jared laughs coldly. “They’re  _not_  my family. And you’re not some  _stranger_ , but it’s fine, you don’t have to come. It means a lot that you were willing to. Given how I’ve been acting over the past days. I’ve been rude and…I’m sorry.” Jared has been acting like a bit of a dick, but Jensen thinks it’s more to do with the fact that questions have been thrown at him non-stop since the day she died. Even by Chad, who’s supposed to be his friend. It would be enough to make anyone cranky...  
  
“You’re grieving,” Jensen says quickly. “It’s understandable.”  
  
“I might be, but it doesn’t mean I have to be a jackass,” Jared replies. “Anyway, we’re almost here. I’ll see you later okay?” The call cuts off and Jensen sits there, staring at the screen. He takes a deep breath and starts his car. Twenty-five minutes later, he slides into the row of pews where Jared and Chad are seated. The church is big and nice-looking, as far as churches go. Jensen makes sure to focus on Jared straight away because sacred ground can be a little difficult to be on at times. If there are too many spirits at once Jensen picks up on all of their energies and well, all hell tends to break loose (and in one case, his ex-boyfriend flipped out and left him for his neighbour, because apparently a freak like Jensen wasn’t worth being with).  
  
Jared looks subdued, his eyes glued to the service program in his hands with something akin to disgust painted on his face. He’s wearing a light grey suit, with a white shirt and black tie, a stark contrast to the row in front of him where Jeff, Matt and the rest of the people sitting there are adorned in black. Jensen can’t help casting his mind back to what Diane said about hating black. He smiles a little as he sits in the empty seat next to Jared. Chad nods at Jensen when he sees him. Jared doesn’t turn to look at him but he reaches over and squeezes Jensen’s hand slightly. Jensen squeezes back before letting go.

  


  
The service goes well, with little drama, though Jensen can almost sense Jared getting increasingly agitated. Jensen senses that going back to the Morgan House probably won’t help matters. At the wake, he tries to stick to Jared’s side and distract him but in the end he loses Jared in a sea of well-wishers and ends up sitting at one of the tables with Chad, sipping at a glass of warm water.  
  
“ _You know, this is not how I thought I’d go out_.” Jensen jumps as Diane’s voice sounds in his ear. “ _You’d think that my darling brother would at least stump for a different venue for my fucking wake. But no, he’s always too busy counting his pennies_.”  
  
“I’m sure this was just the easier solution,” Jensen mumbles, hoping not to draw attention to himself. “The service was nice at least.”  
  
“ _So you went after all_ ,” she says. “ _Did they put me in black_?”  
  
“No,” Jensen lies. It’d been a closed casket funeral (thank God) so there’s no way of knowing, but the last thing he needs is a pissed off spirit on his hands. Before she can say anything else, a loud shout in the distance draws the attention of Jensen and the people around him. Jensen shares a look with Chad before he turns to see what the cause of the commotion is. As a wave of murmurs flows through the room, the glass that Jensen is holding shakes violently and then cracks, shards spraying across his lap and onto his shoes.  
  
“What the fuck dude?” Chad hisses from his seat next to Jensen’s.  
  
Jensen sighs. “Angry spirit. You have to stop that fight, somehow, before she gets even angrier.” Jensen can’t see Diane anymore, but he can hear the fight and it is obvious where her ire is stemming from. He follows after Chad and rushes forward to the front of the room, where Jeff and Jared are facing off against each other.  
  
“Why are you even here?” Jeff is yelling. “You’re not family; you’re not blood. You mean nothing to this family. Just because Diane gave you hand-outs doesn’t mean that we have to anymore.”  
  
“Do you not get bored of the hearing yourself saying the same old shit?” Jared snaps angrily. “I’m here because I cared about Diane. She _was_  my family. That might mean nothing to you but I really don’t give a fuck. Now get out of my face.”  
  
“This is  _my_  house,” Jeff shouts back. “You can’t talk to me like that.”  
  
“Last time I checked, only one third of this house is yours,” Jared retorts. “That must kill you, huh? All you care about is your precious bank balance.”  
  
Jeff hurls his champagne glass at Jared, who thankfully has the foresight to duck. The glass’s flight is derailed by the wall and it clatters to the ground. An unfamiliar blonde woman darts forward and murmurs something in Jeff’s ear but he shoves her off him.  
  
“No, Samantha,” he says. “I’m not going to leave him alone. Not when the last thing me and Diane did was argue. Over him.” Jensen recalls Jared saying that he and Diane had argued over something similar and he feels a pang of sadness that they’ll never be able to resolve their animosity with her being able to see it for herself. [2] Despite that, there’s only one person’s side that he’s going to be on here.  
  
“How is that Jared’s fault?” Jensen can’t help asking. Jared turns and mouths ‘ _don’_ t’ but Jensen shrugs. If he was in Jared’s position he’d at least want  _one_ person on his side.  
  
Jeff glares at Jensen. “Who the fuck are you? Are you one of Diane’s boy toys? I told security that they had to run  _all_  the fucking guests by me. Where the fuck is Rosenbaum?” When Rosenbaum doesn’t materialise, Jeff turns and addresses the room. It’s obvious now that he’s a little wasted, but Jensen would rather that someone get him the hell out of here before Diane re-emerges and wreaks havoc on the entire event. A quick look at Chad tells Jensen that he’s thinking along similar lines.  
  
“I’ll tell you how it’s his fault,” Jeff says. “Me and her were tight before he came into the picture; she was my best friend. My big sister and suddenly she has some kid who she’s looking after, some kid who  _wasn’t_  family and it was like me and Matty were second best. Right, Matt? You felt the same didn’t you?”  
  
“This isn’t really the time or place, Jeff,” Matt says as he steps forward. “I think that you should go and lie down, sleep it off. And, Jared, I think that maybe you should leave.” The room quietens down as everyone turns to Jared to see what his reaction will be. Jensen can see Jared’s hand clenching into a fist, the grip so tight that his fingers whiten. He silently wills Jared to let this go. That’s when the madness begins. The heavy glass chandelier falls suddenly, hitting the floor with a loud bang, glass shattering and flying everywhere. A strong gust of wind blows into the room, blowing everything off the table, plates and wine glasses smashing and falling in a cascade of fragments.  
  
“Jensen, do something!” Chad yells as a thrum of increasingly irate guests push past him. Jensen catches Jared giving them an odd look, but he doesn’t say anything and Jensen turns on his heel and runs out of the room. She’s where he’d expected her to be; at the scene of her murder. He tries to get inside; but the door is locked. With all the commotion downstairs, Jensen decides that there’s no harm in hammering on the door.  
  
“Diane!” he calls. “You need to calm down!”  
  
“ _Go away_ ,” she screams back. “ _I hate this! I hate all of this!”_  
  
 _So much for her being calmer than the average spirit,_  he thinks.  
  
Jensen moves back from the door. “Look, it’s over now. Just calm down and we can talk about this rationally, okay, and  _calmly_.” There’s a long pause and suddenly Jensen feels a huge surge of energy fly past him so hard that it knocks him over, his shoes scraping on the floor as he slides backwards. The door flies open and he sits up to see Diane standing there; the bloodstain still prominent on her white dress.  
  
“ _Have they stopped arguing?”_  she asks softly. “ _I…I don’t know what happened. I got really angry and then this...power erupted in my chest and everything started falling apart. I just wanted them to stop arguing_.”  
  
“I know you did,” Jensen says soothingly as he stands up and brushes his hands on his pants.  
  
 _“You’re hurt!_ ” she says, voice hysterical. Jensen looks down and only then notices that his hands are bleeding. There are bloody marks on his pants. He barely feels the pain as he steps forward to try and keep her calm.  
  
“You need to calm down,” he says. She doesn’t say anything, just stares at him blankly for a few seconds before her form flickers and then vanishes. Jensen breathes out and turns to go and see what’s happening downstairs. Jared’s standing directly behind him, eyes wide as he stares at Jensen.  
  
“What the hell is going on?” Jensen gulps and wonders how he’s going to explain his way out of this.

  


  
“You….can see and hear ghosts? How the hell is that possible?” Jared asks later, as he’s helping the cleaners tidy up the room where they’d held the wake. Jeff, Matt and the rest of the family are nowhere to be seen, which Jensen thinks is probably for the best. Technically, Jared’s not even meant to be helping with the clean-up. He’d even been kind enough to clean out Jensen’s hands and give him a couple of Band-Aids. Jensen thinks that Jared was probably doing his utmost best to block out what he walked in on. Chad eyes Jensen warily and answers the question for him, which is good because he’s the one who’s been doing the talking so far. Never mind the fact that Jensen might not want Jared to know about his ability, but apparently that’s neither here nor there at the moment. Jared’s not going to let this slide.  
  
“Okay well, long story short, he woke up one day, after he turned eighteen and he saw a dead girl sitting at the end of his bed,” Chad says. “Since then he’s been able to see spirits wherever he goes. Back when I was working at my dad’s law firm, he helped us with a case and somewhere along the line we formed a partnership. Typically we investigate deaths that the police tend to classify as ‘not suspicious’. It’s pretty cool. I’m like, Perry Mason with my ghost hunter sidekick. Well, kind of.” Chad’s attempt to lighten up the mood goes down like a lead balloon. Jared looks as though he’s trying hard not to call both of them crazy. The worst part is that Jensen can’t even blame him. He ties up the trash bag he’s been filling up and dumps it with the other bags, using a little more force than necessary. He’s starting to wish that he’d never driven back after he left the house in the morning.  
  
“How is that possible?” Jared says after a long pause. “Ghosts aren’t real, Chad.”  
  
Chad says something that Jensen can’t hear and then, “They’re not ghosts; they’re spirits. It’s like a footprint being left behind once you’ve stepped in mud. Once they die, some people leave a mark or presence behind. I don’t know. Jensen is better than explaining all of this.”  
  
“Jensen doesn’t seem like he wants to talk about this,” Jared points out and Jensen rolls his eyes. The disbelief is evident in Jared’s voice and as much as he pretends that it doesn’t – it  _stings_. This is why he keeps his ability a secret, he doesn’t want to be sneered at or mocked because of a stupid part of him that he can’t control.  
  
“No shit, Sherlock,” he mutters as he retrieves his suit jacket. “I’m going home. I’ve had enough for one day.”  
  
“Jensen, wait, I don’t mean to imply that you’re lying,” Jared says. “It’s just a lot to take in…I…why didn’t you tell me before?”  
  
Jensen snorts. “Oh right, I see. I should have told you in between telling you to fuck me harder, should I? We’re not friends, Jared. We’re not anything and…I never should have come here, but I have and whether you believe me or not, I’ve seen Diane. I owe it to her to make sure that I do everything I can regarding her death but make no mistake, I don’t owe  _you_  anything.”  
  
He walks out of the room, shoving the jacket on as he escapes down the hallway. He’s so furious that he doesn’t see the person standing just by the doorway and he collides into her, reaching out at the last minute to keep her from falling.  
  
“Sorry about that…” he trails off as he realises that he doesn’t know her name. She has wavy, blonde hair and startling blue eyes that are radiating off an emotion that makes him feel uneasy. He wonders if she’d overheard any of what had been said. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Jensen Ackles, a fr—I know Jared’s friend Chad.”  
  
“I’m Amy,” she says. “Matt’s wife.” Her tone is a little abrupt and she doesn’t exactly exude friendliness. Jensen nods. “Nice to meet you. I was just on my way out.” He doesn’t wait for her to say anything else, just walks past her and heads toward the front door.

  


  
Jared shows up at his door the next morning with coffee from Starbucks and brown bag that’s producing some seriously awesome smells. Jensen finds it kind of weird, seeing Jared here, despite the fact that this was where they’d hooked up a lot of the time.  
  
Sometimes Jensen’s not sure why they ever thought that they were fooling Chad.  
  
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about being a jerk last night,” Jared says once they reach the kitchen. “I should have let you tell me about your… _ability_  instead of pressing Chad for information  _right_  in front of you. I was just kind of freaked out. You get that, right?”  
  
“It’s fine,” Jensen says with a shrug. He leans by the counter and watches Jared closely. “I get that it’s weird.” Jared comes to stand by Jensen, warmth radiating from where his arm brushes against his. Jared looks at him, his hazel eyes more blue than green in the morning light.  
  
“It’s not that weird,” Jared replies. “I mean, there are a lot of people claiming to be psychics and whatever the hell else, it  _is_  Los Angeles after all. Wait. I’m not saying that you’re claiming to be something you’re not, just that it’s weird. Or not weird. God, this coming out wrong.”  
  
Jensen tenses up. “You don’t have to say anything. We can just forget that you know.”  
  
“No, I don’t want to forget,” Jared says. “It’s a part of you and we shouldn’t just ignore it. So you’re different. So what? I’ve had a whole life time of people judging me because of the way I act and the way I am. Jeff and Matt can’t stand me because they have this  _idea_  of me that might be my doing, I don’t know. What I’m saying is that I might not believe in ghost and spirits and whatnot, but I believe in  _you_.”  
  
Jensen doesn’t know what to say to that. Luckily for him, Jared seems to be a in a chatty mood.  
  
“Can we talk?” he asks. “Are you busy?” Jensen’s actually supposed to be going over the profiles that Chad’s put together so far of the fourteen suspects but it’s  _Jared_ , it’s not like he’s going to send him away.  
  
“Sure, we can talk,” he says. “Let’s go into the living room.”  
  
Once they’re settled on the couch, Jared lets out a huge sigh and Jensen can’t help wondering if he should have sent Jared on his way.  
  
“First of all, I just want to say sorry again for  _all_ of this,” he says. “I know that you and I don’t really do this; we don’t get involved personally and I know that all of this drama is not what you signed up for.”  
  
Jensen can’t help laughing at that. “I knew what I was getting into when we first hooked up. You’ve been in more than a few editions of  ** _US Weekly_**.”  
  
Jared rolls his eyes. “The media are the  _worst_. But you get used to it after a while. I guess what I’m saying is that if you don’t want anything to do with all of this, I won’t mind. And if Chad tries to give you any grief, I’ll set him straight.” Jensen’s not really sure how to feel about Jared giving him an ‘out’. It feels a little strange; almost like they do have a relationship and not just a series of hook-ups and a tumultuous friendship.  
  
“I can’t leave Diane on her own now,” Jensen says. “So I’m not going anywhere until I help her move on.”  
  
“Move on,” Jared echoes. “It seems so final. Has she said anything? About me? Is she still pissed about Jeff and all of that stuff?”  
  
Jensen is reluctant to tell Jared what she said but he thinks  _fuck it_. What’s he got to lose? “Just that I should…take care of you.”  
  
To his surprise, Jared laughs at that, eyes lighting up as his shoulders shake gently. It’s the most animated Jensen’s seen him since that day in his bedroom and he smiles. He wishes that he could keep Jared happy, take away the lingering sadness in his eyes and he hurts that he can’t.  
  
“She would say that,” Jared says rather cryptically. “You’re doing a good job though. You’ll never know how much it means that you were at the funeral yesterday.” Jensen thinks about how Jeff and Matt had effectively tried to outcast Jared from their family and he thinks that he might have some idea.  
  
“You’d do the same for me, I’m sure,” Jensen says, just to be nice. He’s not really sure how he’s supposed to respond when he’d been so close to bailing and having nothing to do with the whole situation.  
  
Jared’s response is brief and to the point. “I probably wouldn’t.”  
  
“Well…” Jensen trails off, unsure how to respond.  
  
“It’s true. I don’t do well with  _people._ I just don’t have that in me. I mean, you saw for yourself. They couldn’t even put their hatred aside for one day – what does that say about me?”  
  
“It doesn’t say anything about you,” Jensen says. “Just that people don’t always get along.”  
  
Jared laughs dryly. “Yeah, well, I don’t get along with  _anyone_ , except for maybe Chad – and I know that I piss him off half the time and there’s---there  _was_  Diane and…I guess; now there’s you.”  
  
“We’ve been hanging out for a year,” Jensen points out. “We’ve never had a problem.”  
  
Jared cocks his head to the side. “We don’t really have a relationship, though, do we? I mean we’re “friends” for a purpose. Speaking of…we probably shouldn’t…you know, not now that things are getting so complicated.” Jensen can tell that Jared’s not trying to be mean or hurtful, but he feels as if he’s been kicked the stomach. It’s as though Jared’s reached into his chest and gripped his heart and Jensen’s not sure what it’s going to take to get over this feeling, he’s not sure why he’s reacting so strongly. Why it  _hurts_  so much. He  _knew_  what he was getting into, fuck, he doesn’t even want a relationship but Jared’s clean. There are no spirits, no echoes…with Jared he’s free of all of it and Jensen’s not sure how he’s supposed to live without that.  
  
“You’re upset, aren’t you?” Jared bites as his lip nervously. “Look, I like you a lot too. I…I don’t hook up with the same guy more than once, and….truth be told, you’re the only person who I’ve slept with in the past year and…I’m like, so  _messed_  up. It could never work between us.”  
  
“Gee, thanks for letting me down easily.” Jensen winces at the bitterness in his voice. He gives Jared an apologetic look.  
  
Jared sighs and rubs a hand over his face. “Can we just be friends? I don’t have a lot of those. There’s Chad and…that’s it, now that Diane’s gone. It would mean the world to me if you stuck around.”  
  
“I can do that,” Jensen says. “And you’re right. If we kept sleeping together, things would be muddied and we don’t want that. We’ve always been good with each other; there’s never been any drama. It’s best that we keep it that way.” He’s lying and worse, he can tell that Jared knows that he’s not being truthful. Their eyes catch and Jensen feels that  _pull_  again. Jared’s eyes are wide and unblinking and Jensen wishes to hell that he could read minds, because Jared’s saying one thing and his eyes are saying another.  
  
“You make me feel things that I shouldn’t,” Jared blurts out. “I kept saying to myself that I’d break things off between us but I couldn’t, because I needed you too much. You didn’t ask me about Diane, you didn’t ever make me feel uncomfortable or stifled and…I needed that. So it’s not that I don’t want you; it’s that I don’t want to lose you.” Jensen’s heart is beating violently in his chest because all he’s thinking is that Jared  _wants him_. That there’s a chance; he just has to make Jared see it. Hope blossoms in his heart and threatens to drown him; if he plays his cards right he might just get what he wants.  
  
He’s about to respond when Jared’s phone rings. He answers it quickly, engaging in a short but important sounding conversation. One he hangs up, he gets up from the couch and says,  
  
“That was Megalyn, Diane and Jeff’s lawyer. She wants to see me back at the house.” Jensen nods as he also stands, coughing slightly when he ends up facing Jared head on. They examine each other quietly, tension thick in the air as they gravitate closer to each other. Jensen can see the conflictions in Jared’s eyes, the storminess of the green-hazel iris, but he’s racked with the desire to kiss Jared senseless, until he tells Jensen that he’s not afraid anymore, that he’s willing to engage in a relationship. He wants everything that Jared has to offer and it scares him.  
  
Luckily, they’re both spared by the door slamming loudly. They spring apart, Jared brushing past Jensen awkwardly as he leaves the room. Jensen follows, and sees Chad hanging his jacket up by the door. Chad’s holding a brown packet in his hand he waves it around when he sees Jensen.  
  
“Phone records and security tapes. My guy came through!” Jensen doesn’t ask; he never does. Chad always goes that extra mile, even when they’re not dealing with murder. He sometimes thinks that Chad feels bad about the fact that he doesn’t really practise law. He knows that Chad’s got to deal with his Dad’s disapproval on a regular basis, so the least he can do is let Chad be his very own Perry Mason, without the courtroom and magically solving cases thing.  
  
“Catch you guys later,” Jared says before he leaves, his eyes not meeting Jensen’s as he waves flimsily. Jensen can’t help the groan that tumbles out of his lips once the door slams shut.  
  
“Did I interrupt something?” Chad asks as he puts the package down on the table. “Or are you two still doing that awkward dancing around each other thing that’s as stupid as fuck?”  
  
“We almost kissed.”  
  
“Oh,” Chad says. “Why is that you two were okay with bumping uglies on the regular up until a few weeks ago, but not okay with being around each other on a daily basis?”  
  
“Beats me,” Jensen mutters, not wanting to go into what he and Jared discussed before Chad’s arrival.

  


Jared’s back sooner than expected, brandishing a sheath of papers that he practically throws at Jensen. Chad’s dozing on the couch but they don’t wake him. They move into the kitchen and Jensen begins to read. It’s a copy of Diane’s Will.

* * *

## LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF Diane Marie Speight-Morgan

I, Diane Marie Speight-Morgan, a resident of the State of California, make, publish and declare this to be my Last Will and Testament, revoking all wills and codicils at any time heretofore made by me.

FIRST: I direct that the expenses of my last illness and funeral, the expenses of the administration of my estate, and all estate, inheritance and similar taxes payable with respect to property included in my estate, whether or not passing under this will, and any interest or penalties thereon, shall be paid out of my residuary estate, without apportionment and with no right of reimbursement from any recipient of any such.

SECOND: All tangible personal property owned by me at the time of my death and not specifically devised, is given as hereafter as provided with respect to my residuary estate.

THIRD: I make the following specific gifts of property:

I give my share of Morgan House to Jared Padalecki.

I give my entire art collection to Jeff Morgan to distribute and keep as he sees fit

I give my lake house in Cabo to Matt Cohen-Morgan.

Any specific gift made in this will to two or more beneficiaries shall be shared equally among them, unless unequal shares are specifically indicated. All shared gifts must be sold, and the net proceeds distributed as the will directs, unless all beneficiaries for that gift agree in writing, after my death, that the gift need not be sold.

If I name two or more primary beneficiaries to receive a specific gift of property and any of them do not survive me, all surviving primary beneficiaries shall equally divide the deceased primary beneficiary's share unless I have specifically provided otherwise. If I name two or more alternate beneficiaries to receive a specific gift of property and any of them do not survive me, all surviving alternate beneficiaries shall equally divide the deceased alternate beneficiary's share.

I give all the rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate, both real and personal, of whatever kind and wherever located, that I own or to which I shall be in any manner entitled at the time of my death (collectively referred to as my "residuary estate"), as follows:

(a) I give my residuary estate to Jared Padalecki.

(b) If none of the named residual beneficiaries described in clause (a) above shall survive me, decline the gift or are no longer in existence, (together referred to as "pre-deceased"), then to the surviving children of the pre-deceased beneficiary, if any, and if he or she has no surviving children, then in its entirety

to  _Richard Speight._

(c) If none of the beneficiaries described in clauses (a) and (b) above shall survive me, decline the gift or are no longer in existence (together referred to as "pre-deceased"), then I give my residuary estate to those who would take from me as if I were then to die without a will, unmarried and the absolute owner of my residuary estate, and a resident of the State of California.

FOURTH: I appoint Jared Padalecki to be my executor. If Jared Padalecki does not survive me, or shall fail to qualify for any reason as my personal representative, or having qualified shall die, resign or cease to act for any reason as my executor, I appoint Richard Speight Jr as my executor. To the extent permitted by the laws of the State of California, this will is intended as and shall be construed to be a nonintervention will and, after the probate of this will, no further proceedings in court shall be necessary other than to comply with the statutes relating to the handling of estates under nonintervention wills. No bond or surety or other security shall be required of any Personal Representative serving hereunder. The decision to administer my estate independently or under court supervision shall be made solely by my personal representative.

FIFTH: Whenever any beneficiary of my estate is under a legal disability or, in the judgment of my Personal Representative, is for any reason unable to apply any distribution to the beneficiary's own best advantage, my Personal Representative may nevertheless make the distribution directly to the beneficiary or to the conservator of the beneficiary's property or to a person with whom the beneficiary resides at the time of the distribution in whatever manner my Personal Representative shall deem best. In the alternative and if the beneficiary is under twenty-one years of age, my Personal Representative may, in the discretion of my Personal Representative, distribute the property to a custodian for the beneficiary under a Uniform Transfer or Gift to Minors Act. The receipt by the beneficiary, conservator, custodian or other person of any distribution so made shall be a complete discharge to my Personal Representative regarding the distribution.

SIXTH: I grant to my personal representative all powers conferred on personal representatives and executors wherever my personal representative may act. I also grant to my personal representative power to retain, sell at public or private sale, exchange, grant options on, invest and reinvest, and otherwise deal with any kind of property, real or personal, for cash or on credit; to borrow money and encumber or pledge any property to secure loans; to hold property in bearer form or in the name of a nominee; to divide and distribute property in cash or in kind; to exercise all powers of an absolute owner of property; to compromise and release claims with or without consideration; to execute and deliver deeds and other instruments, including releases; and to employ attorneys, accountants and other persons for services or advice.

The term "executor" wherever used herein shall mean the personal representatives, executors, executor, executrix or administrator in office from time to time. The term "trustee" wherever used herein shall mean the trustees or trustee in office from time to time. Each personal representative and trustee shall have the same rights, powers, duties, authority and privileges, whether or not discretionary, as if originally appointed hereunder.

SEVENTH: Each beneficiary shall be deemed not to have survived me unless the beneficiary is living on the thirtieth day after the date of my death.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I, Diane Marie Speight-Morgan, sign my name and publish and declare this instrument as my last will and testament this 21st day of April, 2014. I also have affixed my initials on the bottom of each of the preceding pages hereof.

  
_____________________________

Diane Marie Speight-Morgan

* * *

  
Jared watches as Jensen scans the will with wide eyes. His shock declines after the first couple of pages, as he reads the stuff about representatives and witnesses, but that isn’t what’s important here.

“She gave you  _everything_ ,” Jensen says incredulously. “I mean, well almost everything, but I guess she knew you’d have no use for art and her lake house in Cabo. How the hell did you two know each other again?”

“This is as much of a shock to me as it is to you,” Jared says, running a hand through his hair in distress.

“Matt and Jeff are not going to be happy. Fuck. I own a third of that house!” Jensen can’t help frowning because…he’s heard all about the “Morgan House”, the mansion owned by Diane’s parents, the catalyst for their now successful hotel chain. The sense of family connected to that place is strong. He can’t see Diane just giving it to Jared out of some sort of misplaced loyalty, because sure family doesn’t have to be  _blood_ , but would she really risk pissing off her entire family to prove a point?  


  


  
Chad insists that they should probably pay Richard a visit and Jensen finds himself pulling up outside a modest condo, with Chad next to him in the passenger seat. Jared wanted to come along, but he’d had to go to work.

“I don’t get why he doesn’t just quit that place,” Chad says when Jensen asks why Jared didn’t just take the day off. “It’s been draining money for weeks. Actually I think he has a meeting with Amy about it today.

“Amy? As in Matt’s wife, Amy?” Jensen asks. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Chad shrugs. “The Morgans liked to keep things in the family. She’s an accountant. I told Jared to get another one, but he has … _had_  this sense of loyalty to Diane.”

“So…could the money issues be down to some kind of foul play?” Jensen questions as he opens his car door. Chad follows suit and Jensen joins him on the sidewalk.

“Probably,” he says. “They really don’t like Jared and the feeling is mutual.” Jensen sighs. “I’ve noticed. What was it that made Jared stick around so long? Or hell, why was he there at all? He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d put himself in this kind of situation.”

“I don’t think that’s the question we need to be asking, Jensen,” Chad replies. “We need to find out if there was anyone in Diane’s life who didn’t want her around. Hopefully this Richard guy can give us some answers.  


  


  
Richard’s house is a modest semi-detached house on the other side of town. Chad explains to him on the drive over that due to the prenup, he’d come out of his marriage to Diane with nothing. A possible motive could have been that he was still bitter over their divorce and how thing had ended. Maybe he’d just snapped several years later as opposed to instantly, as ridiculous as that sounded; Jensen had seen stranger things happen. Time was either a great healer, of a big ass festering bomb that gives no warning. He greets them with an odd look when he opens his door.

“Are you guys cops?” He growls. “I’ve already told you people, I’ve said everything I needed to say.”

Chad rolls his eyes right in front of Richard’s face. “We’re not cops; we just want to talk to you about Diane. We’re investigators, hired by a third party.” Jensen bites his lip at that, because if Richard doesn’t want to talk to the cops, he probably won’t want to talk to them either. [S1] However, Richard opens his door and ushers them into the hallway. Once he’s shut the front door, he directs them over to the front room and gestures for them to sit down.

“You’re Jared’s friend, right?” Richard asks Chad once they’re all seated. “He’s your mysterious third party, right? I know he didn’t do it. He might be a stubborn kid, but he loved Diane, she was like an aunt to him. They were super close.” There’s a hint of jealousy in Richard’s voice although Jensen can tell that the man’s sentiments are genuine; he truly believes what he’s saying.

“We know that he’s innocent,” Chad snaps, apparently firmly immersed in his role as ‘bad cop’. “It’s you that I’m not sure about.”

“Me?” Richard is aghast. “What reason would I have to kill her? She was…I cared about her deeply. Even though we’re divorced, we were still friends. Or well, we were until a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t even expecting an invite to her birthday dinner this year.” Something flicks past and Jensen feels a cold sensation in the air. This house is haunted. He stifles an inward groan; he doesn’t need this right now.

“Do you own this house?” he asks as the form begins to materialise in front of him by the fire place. It’s an older woman, with grey hair. She doesn’t appear to be focusing on what’s happening in the room.

“Uh, yes,” Richard answers. “But what does that have to do with Diane? She’s never been here.”

“Did you buy the house?” Jensen doesn’t take his gaze away from the woman and he watches as she turns and finally  _sees_  him. She smiles. They always do. Jensen can’t imagine what it’s like; being invisible, walking around a world that once used to be yours. It must be tough. He’s sure that explains why they’re always so overjoyed to see him, especially that ones that have been dead for a long period of time. They become bitter and jaded, sure that they’re facing an eternity of watching things they can’t have. Jensen hopes that he’s at least helping the good people move on to better places.

Richard’s voice is distant as he replies. “No, my mother left it to me when she passed a few months ago. Why?” Chad shushes Richard, and Jensen would snicker if he wasn’t focusing on the words that the woman couldn’t quite say clearly. Fortunately, Jensen can just about make out what she’s saying.

“Your mother says that she’s sorry for your loss, and that she doesn’t really like Kim much, and that you should maybe cut your losses. She also says that it’s time for you to let her go. Go to your special place, the one by the lake, that’s where she wants her ashes to be spread. She loves you.” A tremor passes through Jensen’s body as the coldness subsides and the form disappears. He turns to look at Richard who’s gaping at him with barely disguised amazement.

“What the fuck was that?”

Jensen sighs. “I’m a medium. I can… _see_  and also hear spirits. Your mom’s spirit is still present in this house. I felt it almost as soon as I walked in here. She wanted me to pass on that message to you. She said that she’s sorry that she didn’t have the heart to tell you yet, she thought you’d have more time together an—“

“Alright,  _Allison Dubois_ ,” Chad cuts in. “I think he gets the general gist.”

“I have no idea what this is,” Richard says weakly. “But can we get back to discussing Diane?”

Jensen shrugs. “Sure. It’s up to you to believe me or not.”

“Kim, is this Kim as in Kim Rhodes?” Chad asked. “The one you had that very public affair with?” Richard rolls his eyes. Jensen admittedly does not remember any tabloids from ten years ago, but he supposes he’d be annoyed if someone dredged up his past too. Especially the part where his parents sent him to five different therapists when he gave them the precise location of the bones of a young girl (who’d lived in their house thirty years prior) who was buried in their back garden. He learned very early on not to share the whole _medium_ aspect of his life with his parents. They weren’t exactly the welcoming type.

“It wasn’t an affair,” Richard snaps, face tightening angrily before he seemingly realises who he’s talking to and it softens. “But anyway, that’s neither here nor there. Kim and I met up recently and decided to give things a try. I guess my mom always thought that  _Diane_  and I would get back together.”

“So Diane invited Kim even after the two of you decided to start going steady instead of sneaking around behind her back?” Chad asks. Jensen doesn’t even chastise him. Chad’s bad cop is kind of like when you get chewing gum stuck on the back of your shoe - annoying and difficult to get rid of.

“I only told her the day before her birthday,” Richard says. “I wanted to see if she’d let Kim come because Kim was saying how she missed Diane and I saw an opportunity.”

“How did she react?” Jensen asks.

“She was pissed, but not at the situation, “Richard says. Jensen frowns at him because that makes no sense whatsoever. “I could tell that she had heard what I’d said, but she hadn’t really processed it. It was more ‘I didn’t need this on top of all the bullshit I’ve dealt with’ mad, than ‘I can’t believe the two of you’ mad.”

Chad blinks at him. “Is there a difference?”

“Yes there is,” Richard says confidently. “And I learned about it the hard way. Seriously, man, don’t ever get married.”

“Noted,” Chad says with a snort.


	4. Part Three

 

 

## 

Jared's still stuck in his thoughts after receiving a copy of Diane's will from Megalyn. He made her explain everything to him then rushed back over to Jensen's, but only partly to show him the will, and that's something he's still trying to work out. Partly, though, he went to Jensen's to make sure that things aren’t awkward between them. If he’s being honest, he’s known for a while that Jensen likes him beyond meaningless sex. It’s why he’d been meaning to drop Jensen and tell him that he didn’t want them to hook up anymore, and he’s been proved right. As much as he hates to think this, Diane’s death has kind of been a blessing in the respect because it gives him a legitimate reason to break things off. Telling people that he’s seriously messed up doesn’t have an effect a lot of the time. That’s how he fell out with Sandy, the girl he’d almost ended up in jail for. She’d been in love with him while Jared had felt  _nothing_. It’d been scary how little he felt. Sure, he’d beat up that guy but that was what any decent person would have done. In the end, friendship hadn’t been enough for her and she’d left.  
  
Jared didn’t and still doesn’t blame her.  
  
However, Jensen is different. There’s no denying that and Jared is scared. He’s not going to screw Jensen up, especially now that Diane’s not here to guide him. Towards the end, she’d been pushing him to bring Jensen around. Apparently he was  _good_  for Jared. That was merely another reason why he’d been planning on bringing everything to a halt. If he tries hard enough, he can pretend that he would have done so eventually.

  


  
  
Jared rolls his eyes as Amy packs up her briefcase and heads for the door. She’s never been Jared’s biggest fan but her behaviour today has been downright rude. Not only has she accused Jared of funnelling money from his own company, she’d spent twenty minutes saying that the Will was unfair and that Jared should give up all that Diane had given to him. He shakes his head and mutters to himself, shutting down the computer and grabbing his keys. The deal that Diane secured for him has fallen through so it’s not like he has anything to do. He’s thinking about selling the place and trying to discover what he wants out of life. Or some other happy, wishy-washy bullshit like that.  
  
His phone rings suddenly, startling him as he walks over to his bike. He answers it without checking the caller I.D.  
  
“Hi, Jared, this is Lauren Cohan from  _Star_  magazine, I’d like to discuss Diane Morgan with you if you have time?” Jared sighs. Getting these types of calls is not unusual and they don’t even bother him anymore, because clearly there’s no reasoning with these people.  
  
“Look, Lauren, I’m sorry but I don’t have anything to say. Goodbye.” He hangs up, put his phone on silent, shoves it into his pocket and hops onto his bike. It’s a classic Harley Davidson – one that he put back together himself and he loves it. Even though he calls that room in the Morgan house his home, sometimes he thinks that home is really his bike.

  


  
The meeting at the Morgan house is more of an ambush. Megalyn is there, but she doesn’t really like Jared either. The only ‘ally’ he has is Danneel, and that’s only because no one likes  _her_  either. Jensen was supposed to come but he’s off with Chad somewhere and can’t make it.  
  
“The date of the Will was the day before she died,” Matt is saying when Jared tunes back in. “How is that not a coincidence? And Megalyn won’t tell us why she changed it?”  
  
“Uh, Megalyn did not say anything because she’s still maintaining client confidentiality.” Megalyn doesn’t look too impressed as Matt’s insinuation.  
  
“I will be contesting this will,” Jeff says sternly. “Mark my words, Padalecki; you will not walk away with everything that my sister had.” The ‘Padalecki’ takes Jared back, mind lingering on the card he received after the funeral from ‘S. Padalecki’. He knows that his last name technically isn’t Padalecki, and that he’s named after the nurse who brought him to that first children’s home, back when he was baby and all they had was a first name because his mother had absconded from the hospital. Apparently they didn’t want to leave him without a last name and something mundane like Smith or Doe wasn’t good enough. So he knows that she’s not his mother or anything but it’s still _weird_ , and it makes him want to look her up and ask her what she remembers about his mother. There’s a return address on the envelope and he’s been deliberating on writing back but he doesn’t know what to say.  
  
“Jared.” Jeff’s tone is icy and sharp and Jared realises that he’s drifted away again. He stands, suddenly done with the meeting. They don’t agree with Diane’s will, blah, blah. It’s  _their_  problem, not his.  
  
“Contest whatever the hell you want, Jeff,” Jared says airily. “I have better things to do than argue over who gets what. Your sister is  _dead_. She was murdered. Stabbed in the chest.”  
  
“Shut up, Padalecki,” Jeff growls. “I’m warning you.”  
  
“She was  _stabbed_  in this house – maybe by someone in this very room - and you want to argue about money?” Jared doesn’t heed the warning. “You’re looking a lot guiltier in my eyes. Maybe you wanted her money all along – so badly that you were willing to kill for it.”  
  
“That’s enough!” Samantha’s shriek snaps Jared out of his rant and he sits back down. “Everybody needs to calm down. Now, has anyone else got anything to say?”  
  
“I was thinking that we should have some sort of memorial service or gathering,” Amy suggests. “The funeral got sort of messed up in the end, and there were so many people and…something private would be nice. For the  _family_.” She’s looking at Jared as she says that last word and he rolls his eyes. He’s not going to justify it with a response. Matt blows out a breath and to Jared’s surprise, he actually looks a little pissed off.  
  
Despite this he says, “That’s a good idea, baby,” and forces a smile when Amy turns to look at him. Jared mentally files away the exchange.  
  
“Okay, well, I’m going to need help packing up Diane’s stuff,” Danneel says. Jeff glares at her.  
  
“I don’t want you anywhere near her stuff. Hell, I’d rather Jared pack up her things.” Jared raises a brow; that’s shocking, coming from Jeff. He wonders what Danneel has done to deserve Jeff’s ire.  
  
“My sister and I might not have seen eye to eye on everything, but she told me  _everything_ ,” Jeff adds. Danneel’s face morphs into a blank look and Jared’s curiosity gets the better of him.  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?”  
  
“It means that Ms. Harris here is nothing but a common thief,” Jeff replies. “One who has approximately two days to remove herself from this house or else I’ll have the police come and deal with the matter.” There’s a loud screech as Danneel shoves her chair back almost violently and storms out of the room, muttering angrily as she does so. Jared frowns as he wonders what else he’s not aware of.  
  
“I think we’re about done here,” Jeff says abruptly. “Jared, can I speak with you in private?” As the others leave the room, Jared remains seated. They’re in Jeff’s study and Jared’s surprised to see that there’s a picture of him and Diane on his desk. He picks it up, using a finger to trace her smile. His heart aches as he thinks about how he’s never going to see her again. Suddenly all this fighting seems petty and unnecessary.  
  
“Look, there’s this charity function tomorrow that Diane was supposed to attend,” Jeff says. “I need you to go on her behalf and make the donation, seeing as how you’re now in charge of her estate.”  
  
Jared’s eyes widen. Him? At a charity function? No. No way. “I can’t.”  
  
Jeff rolls his eyes. “It’s for a charity that supports orphanages across the country. It was important to Diane, and well, you grew up without parents, I figured that you might want to do this for her.”  
  
“What do you know about my situation?” Jared asks, and if there’s a sharp edge to his tone then who can blame him? Jeff’s always been an asshole to him.  
  
Jeff snorts. “I looked you up the second Diane told me that you’d be moving in here. I know that you grew up in children’s homes, and that Diane was there when you finally left. I don’t know how the hell the two of you met originally. She would never tell me and the PI didn’t have much to go on.”  
  
“Oh.” Jared’s doesn’t really know what to say to Jeff’s admission. “Look, can we just try to get along from now on. For Diane’s sake? She might be here right now….watching over us, and it would mean a lot to her if we could just be civil for once.”  
  
“Fine,” Jeff says quickly, in a tone that suggests that he just wants the conversation to be over. Jared takes the hint and leaves.

  


  
Danneel knocks on his door later that day, a stack of envelopes in her hand. She doesn’t look as angry as she did earlier on but Jared decides not to bring that mess of a meeting up.  
  
“You’ve got a couple of letters,” she says. “Also, have you seen Sterling at all?” Sterling is supposedly Diane’s cousin from her birth mother’s side. He’s mostly been around in the last two years and while Jared gets along with him okay, there’s no denying that there’s something off about the guy.  
  
“Nope,” he replies. “In fact I haven’t seen him since…Diane’s birthday. Was he even at the funeral?”  
  
Danneel shakes her head. “No. But none of her biological family were there so I figured that’s why he didn’t attend. But anyway, I was just asking because a letter came for him.” She holds up the manila envelope which merely has a messy ‘Sterling’ scrawled on it. An idea springs into Jared’s mind.  
  
“I think I have his address somewhere,” he lies. “I’ll take it to him and see if he’s okay.” Danneel hands it over to him with a shrug and leaves.  
  
Jared places the letter in his drawer and goes back to watching some random show on Netflix. He’ll pass the letter on to Chad later.

  


  
There are eight people who could have murdered Diane. That’s what Chad says when Jared meets up with him and Jensen.  
  
“Jeff, Samantha, Danneel, Sterling, Tom, Richard, Kim Rhodes and Matt and/or his wife, Amy,” Jensen reads out from a sheet in front of him. “This is just by going from the security cameras. They were the last ones to enter the dining room that night within the time frame the police gave as her estimated TOD.” Jared ignores the way his stomach lurches violently. He can do this. He can help them investigate. They’re doing this  _for_ him.  
  
“What’s the motive?” he asks, because that’s what they’re supposed to ask right? He’s not really sure how this whole private investigation thing works. Chad scratches at his neck as he answers.  
  
“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. We were hoping that you could help out a little. You knew Diane better than anyone. Let’s start with Kim Rhodes. What was the deal there?”  
  
Jared huffs out a breath. Diane’s relationship with Kim was tumultuous at best. “They were best friends. But they had this huge falling out around the time when Richard and Diane were divorcing, it turns out that she’d had some kind of affair with Richard. It got a little ugly but they patched things up.”  
  
“It says here on Kim’s blog that Diane was ruining her business,” Jensen says from where he’s now staring at a laptop screen. “This is dated three months ago.”  
  
“Richard claims that it wasn’t an affair though,” Chad says. “Could Diane and Kim just not have sat down long enough to discuss what actually happened?”  
  
Jared shrugs. “Yeah, they kind of had an off and off type of friendship from what I know. But Kim runs a cruise-singing school or something. How would Diane be able to ruin that?”  
  
“You mean a Vocal Coaching School?” Jensen says with wry smile.  
  
“That is  _not_  what Diane called it,” Jared replies with a grin. His eyes get a little stuck on Jensen’s face and they end up gazing at each other a little.  
  
“God give me strength,” Chad mutters and Jared clears his throat quietly and looks away. Fuck. He’s got to stop doing that; getting lost in Jensen’s eyes, and all of the other cheesy things he’s been partaking in. A quick glance at Jensen proves that he’s most likely thinking the same thing because his cheeks are stained red and he looks a little embarrassed.  
  
“There’s no way Jeff and Matt would have hurt Diane,” Jared points out as he thinks about the names. “She was their  _sister_.” He doesn’t mention what Detective Kane had told him about Jeff on the day that Diane died, because he’s been hoping to get a chance to ask Jeff to explain himself. He might not like the guy, but he’s not about to throw him under the bus. That’s not how Jared operates.  
  
Chad snorts. “That’s not a good enough reason for them not to be guilty.”  
  
“But what reason would they have to want to kill her?” Jared asks desperately. He’s thought about, hell, it was hard not to after Jeff basically lied to the police. So far he’s come up with nothing on Jeff’s part. Jared doesn’t really think that Matt has two brain cells to rub together, let alone the smarts to murder someone and not leave a flashing neon sign behind that screams ‘ _I did it!_ ’.  
  
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Chad replies, turning his laptop around to face Jared. “Maybe it has something to do with these emails. Here, take a look. Do you know what they could be talking about?” Jared hesitates when he sees an email program loaded up, not really wanting to breach Diane’s privacy like that.  
  
“How did you manage to access her email?” he asks tersely.  
  
Jensen’s the one to reply, “Don’t ask, just read them. Now’s not the time to worry about overstepping.” Jared stares at him for a moment, and Jensen looks right back, giving him a look that seems to be saying ‘ _you might as well_ ’ and he feels his reluctance ebbing away. He wonders when Jensen started having that effect on him.  
  
From: Diane Morgan [dianemm23@gmail.com]  
  
To: F. [fxxd123@gmail.com  
  
Subject: payment  
  
I had you investigated, you jackass, and I know what you did. I had my suspicions back then but my own motives blinded and prevented me from seeing the truth. You might have gotten away with this, but know this:  
  
 **You’re not getting another fucking penny from me.**  
  
 **\---**  
  
 **To:** Diane Morgan [dianemm23@gmail.com]  
  
From: F. [fxxd123@gmail.com  
  
Subject: RE: payment  
  
You don’t want to mess with me, lady. Pay up, or else your real connection to Padalecki will go national. I wonder how he’ll feel when he finds out what you did.  
  
From: Diane Morgan [dianemm23@gmail.com]  
  
To: F. [fxxd123@gmail.com  
  
Subject: RE: payment  
  
Your threats are cute, but you’re forgetting one thing. I have the means to make you disappear.  
  
\---  
  
As Jared hands Chad back his laptop, he’s not sure what to think. What real connection is this mysterious ‘F’ talking about? And who is ‘F’?  
  
“If anything we should be worried about  _F_ ,” he says. ”Diane was the one who threatened them. She could be vicious when she wanted to be.” Chad agrees and they file the email away. It’s kind of weird, going through Diane’s personal information like this. So far they haven’t had any substantial breakthroughs; they’re still at square one. Not even the police seem to have made any headway and Jared’s suddenly wishing that Chad had just left it alone. What’s the point of wasting time and effort when the result will just be more questions than answers? On the other hand, will he be able to live with himself if he doesn’t do his best to find out what happened?  
  
“Richard seemed kind of off when we went to see him,” Chad says quietly. “You don’t think that he had anything do with this do you?” Jared shrugs. He doesn’t know Richard, doesn’t even really know a lot about him and Diane. There were a lot of things that she didn’t tell him.  
  
“You’d have to ask one of her brothers or someone else,” he says when Chad gives him an inquisitive look. “I don’t really know him all that well.”  
  
Chad tilts his head to one side, “He seemed to know a lot about you.” That piques Jared’s interest. Despite all the arguing and turmoil, Richard and Diane had some kind of friendship that he didn’t really understand. Still, Richard has always seemed indifferent to Jared. They don’t have a problem with each other but they’re not exactly clamouring to be the other’s buddy.  
  
“Don’t worry,” Chad adds when Jared doesn’t say anything. “He kind of only had good things to say.”  
  
“There’s a surprise.” He doesn’t think that Richard knows much about him to be saying  _anything_  about him, let alone good things.  
  
“Have you ever considered the fact that not everyone related to Diane despised you?” Chad asked. “Sure Jeff and Matt are assholes, but compared to them everyone else seems harmless.” Jared doesn’t particularly want to talk about this. Chad might be right, but sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to just live your life if you convince yourself that no one gives a damn. It means that he relies on himself for the most part – the second he lets people in, he’s inviting trouble.  
  
“Hey, I have this charity function thing to go to,” he says brightly, deciding that the best way to keep his temper controlled is to change the subject. “You wanna come? There’ll be free food, and an open bar.”  
  
“Sure, whatever,” Chad says without looking up from his laptop. Jared can tell that Chad’s annoyed but he doesn’t say anything else.  
  
He has a habit of pissing people off.

  


  
Jared hates wearing monkey suits. Truly and honestly, he just doesn’t get the appeal in stuffing into tight fabric for the sake of looking smart. Sure, his leather jacket is perhaps on the wrong side of form fitting, but it’s at least comfortable to an extent. This stupid  _Armani_ suit that Danneel forced him into is itchy and uncomfortable. He gives up on his tie after half an hour, not caring what the other guests think. The function is being held at Morgan Hotel closest to the house, and Jeff is the person most people are flocking to. Jared thinks that maybe three people have offered him their condolences, not that he blames anyone. They only know what the press has spouted out; they don’t know what his exact relationship with Diane was. They’re bound to be skittish. And truth be told, he doesn’t want a bunch of strangers telling him how sorry they are. It’s a meaningless gesture.  
  
“Are you nervous about giving your speech?” That’s Jared’s other problem. Chad bailed at the last minute and sent Jensen in his place. Which, okay, he likes Jensen well enough, but damn if he doesn’t want to drag Jensen to a room somewhere and peel  _his_  suit off him inch by inch. It’s a soft grey, and well-tailored, pants displaying Jensen’s ass  _perfectly_  and crap-dammit, he’s not supposed to be having these kinds of thoughts about Jensen, especially now that they’re not doing the whole friends with benefits thing anymore. And really, whose smart idea was that? Not that Jared thinks he was wrong for putting an end to the whole thing.  
  
“Not really,” he says when he notices Jensen’s look of concern. “I mean all I need to say is ‘Hey, thanks for coming. Please leave a nice check. Bye’.”  
  
Jensen laughs, head throw back as his eyes light up with mirth, as if Jared’s just made his evening, made him… _happy_. Jared looks away quickly – he’s not supposed to be focusing on sappy shit like that.  
  
“You might need to say a little more than that, Jared.” Jensen gives him a fond smile and Jared doesn’t bother averting his gaze this time. He can’t. They look at each other and Jared feels that same emotion he always does, some kind of magnetic force drawing them together. Luckily for both of them, someone taps Jared’s shoulder at that precise moment and hands him a letter.  
  
“Ms Harris told me to hand this to you,” the waiter says. Jared accepts the white envelope, glancing over to the room at where Danneel is chatting to Richard. The dress she’s wearing is one of Diane’s. A red Valentino that she spent hours finding – Jared knows this because it was one of the first things they did when he started his probation. He’d gotten pissed over something, he can’t remember what – he spent a lot of his time angry back then. She’d made him cart her luggage around as penance and he’d actually ended up having a good time. Sure, the wealth and glamour had been alien to him, but it’d been nice to have someone in his life who actually wanted to spend time with him.  
  
He ignores Jensen’s questioning glance and peels open the latter, leaving the flap in shreds. He pulls out the stapled sheets and sees that it’s some kind of scan. It takes a while for it all to click in his mind. He spots Diane’s signature first, realising that it’s a series of checks.  
  
Checks made out to the children’s home where he spent most of his childhood. He flips past the first couple of sheets and finds himself reading some sort of agreement. Anger starts to rise inside of him and he grips the sheets so hard that creases form. He barely feels Jensen dragging him inside; he’s too busy trying not to flip the fuck out and smash something.  
  
“What is it?” Jensen asks softly. Jared can’t answer but he lets Jensen pull the papers from his hand.  
  
“I take it that you didn’t know about this?” he says when he’s skimmed it.  
  
Jared snorts angrily. “No fucking, shit, Jensen.” Jensen’s about to say more when the host of the function calls for Jared to come up and say a few words on Diane’s behalf. Jared wonders if this is all Jeff’s doing; some cruel joke set up so he makes a public spectacle of himself.  
  
“Jared…” Jared shrugs off the arm Jensen has on his shoulder and makes his way over to the podium. He’s so pissed off that he can barely see straight but he’s not going to give the person who sent this the satisfaction, he’s not going to just forget that Diane actually believed in this case because she betrayed and  _lied_  to him for twelve fucking years.  
  
He says a few words, a politer variation of what he said to Jensen. The applause he gets is muted but he doesn’t give a fuck. He’s already ripping off his suit jacket as he leaves the podium and starts to leave the room.  
  
“Jared, hey. That was a nice speech.” Richard blocks his exit and Jared takes a deep breath.  
  
“Get out of my way.” Richard’s eyes widen and he steps aside quickly. Jared thinks he hears Jensen behind him apologising but he doesn’t care. He walks in long strides until he reaches outside, cold spring air hitting his face almost instantly. He wipes the barely formed tears from his eyes roughly and starts to walk down the street hastily.  
  
“Jared, wait!” Jensen’s on his heels almost keeping up with his pace. “Wait, dammit.”  
  
“Leave me alone,” he calls back, picking up his speed. He doesn’t need to be around Jensen of all people. Not right now.”  
  
Jensen doesn’t seem to take the hint. “I’m not leaving you like this, and look, maybe there’s an explanation.” That stops Jared in his tracks. From what he knows of Jensen, it’s typical of him to try and see the good in every situation; he’s that kind of person. Glass, half-full, optimistic – all of that bullshit. And maybe, just this once – maybe it’s what Jared needs. Some semblance of hope.  
  
“You think so?” he asks, his voice cracking. “I…she said she knew my parents. Maybe she was hoping they’d grow a pair and actually come and find me.”  
  
“Exactly,” Jensen says with a nod. “Or maybe she wanted to make sure she’d always know where you were. Either way, you have every right to be upset, Jared, but—“  
  
A proverbial light bulb goes off inside Jared’s head. “You can ask her exactly what her motivations were. In fact, there’s a lot that I need you to ask her.”  
  
“Why don’t you make a fucking list?” Jared has never heard such bitterness in Jensen’s voice before. “I…I’m sorry, I just…I’m trying to make you feel better and you want me to be  _Medium_ Jensen instead of your friend and just…forget it. Let’s go to the house and if she’s there I’ll ask.”  
  
“No, you’re right,” Jared says quickly. “And it might be better to ask the home instead. It’s here in LA, I can…I can go back and see what they say. We don’t want another repeat of her wake.”  
  
“No…no, I can ask her,” Jensen replies. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m here to be a medium and communicate with Diane, not become your BFF or whatever. You don’t owe me anything and---.”  
  
“Can we go back to your house?” Jared interjects, not ready to open up another can of worms. “I don’t think I should be near the Morgan place or on my own right now. I’m trying to be the new zen Jared. Or well, old zen Jared. It’s been a while since I’ve been involved in a punch-up.”  
  
“I think I read about that one on TMZ,” Jensen says lightly.

  


  
The next day, Jared wakes up to Chad and Jensen discussing something that sounds very serious. He knows that this is Jensen’s place, and he can’t really dictate what he and Chad can do, but the only trouble is that it’s seven in the morning and thus, way too early. Technically, Jared should be getting ready to go to work, but he thinks he’s done with Padascape (the name  _wasn’t_  his idea). He makes a note to pop in later and give Milo, his second-in-command, the heads-up. Milo’s got a new baby girl and Jared’s not going to leave him in the lurch; hell he’s ready to hand over the company if he needs to. Though, what with the haemorrhaging money and all, there might not be a company to hand over.  
  
He can’t find it in himself to care anymore.  
  
“Oh, hey, you’re up,” Jensen says when he spots Jared. “Do you want some coffee?” Jared shakes his head as he joins them, plopping down into an armchair. He winces as the muscles in his back strain, shooting pain across his shoulder blades.  
  
“What do you know about Samantha Smith?” Chad asks. Jared blows out a breath. Samantha’s always been kind of weird around him. Some days she’s perfectly nice, but when she’s around Jeff, she can be downright hostile. According to Diane, she and Jeff were childhood sweethearts and she ‘broke’ Jeff’s heart. They’ve only reconciled in the past few months, which is something that Diane wasn’t too happy about. Jared always just let her Samantha rants go over his head. He wonders if he maybe should have paid closer attention.  
  
“Why?”  
  
Chad points at his laptop. “I had one of my crime scene buddies go through Diane’s room after the cops were done, because we all know that LAPD are incompetent at best, and he found a tape slipped under a floorboard. Without being prompted, Chad leans over and presses play, leaving Samantha’s voice to filter into the room.  
  
‘ _This is none of your business, Diane. I’m warning you now. Stay out of it. I haven’t budged in the last however many years and I won’t now. I told you about this in confidence and you swore – swore – not to tell anyone. So please just keep your mouth shut. Don’t make me shut it for you._ ’ There’s a click and the audio ends. Jared has absolutely no idea what that was about, but Samantha’s threat is clear and obvious.  
  
“It must be something to do with Jeff,” he says. “He and Samantha go way back, maybe Diane found something out and she wanted her to come clean?”  
  
Chad sighs. “All we have is guesswork at the moment. But that’s the first threat of death that we’ve come across.  
  
“Samantha doesn’t seem like the type of person to stab someone though,” Jared muses.  
  
“I don’t think Diane’s killer intended for her death to be so grisly.” Chad and Jared both turn to look over at Jensen because Jensen saying that is  _weird_. Or well, it is to Jared at least. He imagines that Chad encounters Jensen’s random insights a lot.  
  
“I…have this feeling that there were two people involved,” Jensen says hesitantly. “I don’t know if you have the toxicology reports or anything, and I know that the COD was a stab wound to the stomach but…it just seems off. I mean, I looked at the pictures and…she’s reaching out for something but her hand is clasped. That’s weird right?” Jared tunes out as he remembers the sight of her lying there, blood pooling out of her stomach as the knife jutted out of it. He hasn’t told anyone this, but she’d been alive when he got there, last flutters of life still in her…he doesn’t know if it was seconds or minutes that passed in time that it took for the light to go out of her eyes. He remembers seeing something in her hand….her cell.  
  
“Do we have a copy of the pictures?” he asks.  
  
“I don’t think you looking at them is a good idea,” Chad says sternly. Jared doesn’t bother replying to that because he’s already got the image of Diane’s lifeless body in his mind, and he doubts that it will ever go away. Pictures are the least of his troubles.  
  
“I think Jensen might be onto something, because when I got there she wasn’t reaching out for anything. She was holding her cell phone.”  
  
“There’s no mention of a cell phone in the police report,” Chad says. “What the fuck?” He reaches into a folder and pulls out a glossy 5x7. Jared takes it from him, grief flooding into his chest as he stares at it. He found Diane in a heap by the door, lying on her side with her phone in her hand. In the picture, she’s lying by the dresser with her hand reaching out, like Jensen said.  
  
“Maybe the police moved her?” Jensen says when Jared relays this to them.  
  
“We have no way of knowing,” Chad says. “Jared was the first on scene. He called the cops but didn’t alert anyone downstairs. By the time I got there, they were dragging him out of the room, so they could go in and examine the b--the scene.”  
  
“I left the room.” The memory comes back to Jared slowly. “It was a couple of minutes…there was just so much blood and I wanted to clean it up, but by the time I got to the bathroom I realised that I couldn’t tamper with the scene and….” Jensen comes over and sits on the arm of Jared’s seat. He gives Jared’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. Jared gives him a grateful look. He doesn’t talk about the nightmares he has every night; the guilt that cripples him every day. He doesn’t want to pressure Jensen into helping him communicate with her, but there are things he needs to say; things that he needs  _her_  to say. It kills him that he’s never going to hear her voice again, he’s never going to get to apologise. Sure, it’s possible that the letter he got last night isn’t the end of secrets being revealed but he’s known all along that she didn’t tell him everything. He knew that he was able to overlook it; and fuck it, but Jared doesn’t see the point in being angry with a dead person.  
  
“We need to check the security footage to see if anyone left the table,” Chad says. “I think I managed to upload the feed from the night onto my computer.”  
  
“Wait, wait, go back,” Jensen says after the tape plays for a few minutes. “This tape’s been tampered with. See how the timestamps change. At 7.45pm, it’s fine but the frame after that is 8.00pm and everyone is back in the room.”  
  
“Police arrived at about that time,” Chad confirms. “In fact Jared’s call was at 7.46 and I heard running water in the background.” Jared doesn’t even ask how Chad remembers all of that; he puts it down to his friend’s lawyer-brain. Or perhaps his frazzled brain that night and the fact that he’s been trying to shove it down since it happened.  
  
“So while I was in the bathroom, the killer sneaked in and moved her. And they took her phone.”  
  
“Which one of our killers would know how to tamper with the security footage so quickly?” Jensen asks. “Because it’s not like they had a lot of time to do it,  _and_ if it wasn’t planned murder, the killer had to have the know-how to do it quickly”  
  
“Matt works with the security company, the one that hotel uses in all of its many, many branches,” Jared says “But I still can’t see it being him. He doesn’t seem like the type.”  
  
“Not every killer seems like ‘the type’,” Jensen points out  
  
“I want to go back to what Jensen was saying,” Chad says. “I’m going to see if I can chase up that Toxicology report. Seems weird that the police never released the results.”  
  
“It probably hasn’t been released yet,” Jensen adds. “It’s only been a couple of weeks since she…” Jensen trails off, and Jared can feel him tensing up. The fact that he suddenly wants to walk on eggshells pisses Jared off and he snaps.  
  
“She’s  _dead_ ,” he says. “There’s not need to spare my feelings; just fucking say it.” Jensen opens his mouth wordlessly in the face of Jared’s glare. Jared feels his gaze soften as he realises that he’s overreacting. He starts to apologise when Chad jumps in, presumably trying to distract them before things get more uncomfortable.  
  
“The murder weapon! Did you get a good look at it? I’m guessing that the police haven’t found anything conclusive on it yet because as far as I know, nothing has come out of it.” Jared doesn’t ask how Chad knows anything about the police’s case. The less  _he_  knows the better.  
  
“I don’t remember seeing anything, but if it was there surely the police would have found it,” he says instead. ”Wouldn’t they release that information to the public?”  
  
Jensen frowns. “That or they’re biding their time. If they’ve come to the same conclusion that we have, that it was someone in the house then perhaps they’re trying to smoke out the suspects.”  
  
“Or their suspect,” Jared laughs dryly. “I bet they’re waiting for me to put one foot out of turn. If they can prove that I’m violent and short tempered, they won’t hesitate to bring me in.”  
  
“Wouldn’t they have done that already?” Jensen asks.  
  
“Nah, not when his last conviction was almost ten years ago, and his probation was relatively plain-sailing.”  
  
“Yup. Got a glowing report from my probation officer and everything.” Jared does a mock silent cheer. There’s something kind of bizarre about sitting here discussing whether or not the police have grounds to arrest him for  _murder_  when the most he’s done is knock someone out, and granted, he knocked a couple of teeth out and possibly damaged the guy’s arm, but they’re not anywhere near the same level.  
  
“I need a drink.” Jensen and Chad both give him twin-matching looks of concern. He presses a hand against his face. “What? It’s five pm somewhere, right?”  
  
“We’ll all go out later then,” Chad says. “In the meantime, you have to figure out who the hell is embezzling money from Padascape before people put two and two together and come up with,  _she left him everything the day before she died_!”  
  
Jensen snorts as he stands, “Padascape? That’s a little on the nose, don’t you think?”  
  
“Alright, alright,” Jared says in an aggrieved tone, ignoring Jensen’s comment. “But I don’t know how you expect me to figure that shit out. I’m awful with numbers and accounting and all of that shit. It’s what me and Diane fought about the day she…the day she died. She’d seen the numbers and was giving me the ‘you need to be more responsible and go and ask Jeff for help’ speech.”  
  
“Hire another accountant or an auditor, get them to go through everything with a fine tooth comb,” Chad says as he shuts down his computer. "Until we do that, I want to take a look at that last day. She had breakfast with Jared, was seen around her office at one---"  
  
"She was supposed to be having lunch with Jeff," Jared interjects. "But I'm not sure if she did. And I didn't hear from her again after that. And actually, now that I think about it, she was acting really weird. She kept checking her phone for messages and I don’t know, she was just being weird. Maybe it was something to do with that email?”  
  
“Seems like the email was related to the whole children’s home thing?” Jensen suggests. “I mean, it would make sense.”  
  
“Maybe,” Chad says. “And the phone calls could have been from Samantha? I mean, I can try and access her phone records and we can see for sure. Good job, Jared.  
  
“I didn’t really do anything,” Jared says. “I should have remembered that right away. How can I ever forget a second of that day?”  
  
Jensen lays one of his hands over Jared’s. “It was a traumatic day for you. No one expects you to remember every single little thing. Well, except for maybe the cops, but who gives a shit about them?”  
  
“Jeff, probably,” Jared replies with a snort, eyeing his and Jensen’s joined hands. “He’s probably trying to bribe them all to take me down by any means necessary.” He slides his hand out from underneath Jensen’s and places it in his lap awkwardly. Jensen looks down towards the general vicinity of the floor, not meeting his eye. Jared can see Chad eyeing them warily, but no one comments on the heightened awkwardness suddenly threatening to drown all of them.

  


  
After leaving Chad and Jensen to continue playing detective, Jared heads to work. He can’t get anyone to come and go through the books right away so he ends up sitting in his office playing solitaire. There’s a knock on his door around lunchtime and Milo steps in.  
  
“I don’t suppose that we’ve got any work going?” he asks, his voice laced with hope. Jared feels a flash of guilt. Not only do they not have any, he hasn’t made an attempt to find any. And while, he definitely doesn’t care, it’s unfair on Milo and the rest of his workers. Also maybe he does care; a little.  
  
Not that he’d ever tell anyone.  
  
“No, we don’t,” he says eventually. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“Well that might not be a bad thing because this friend of my mom’s just bought this huge house down in Brentwood, like, three times the size of  _my_  house huge and she’s looking to get some work done on her yard. I gave her our card and she said that she’d call. I kind of promised her a friend’s rate, but she’s good for whatever really.”  
  
“That’s…awesome,” Jared says slowly. “Uh, do you mind manning the office for calls and stuff, just while I get myself back on my feet?”  
  
“Sure!” Milo says. “Hey, Jeff Morgan was here a couple of weeks ago. I forgot to mention it to you. He was looking at something on the computer and then he took something out of the safe. He said that you knew all about it when I asked him, which is why it slipped my mind, but then I saw that interview he gave in the paper and it came back to me. I take it that the two of don’t get along.”  
  
“Milo, Milo….slow down,” Jared speaks. “What exactly did he take out of the safe? And when was this?”  
  
Milo’s face turns a deep shade of red and he looks down at the floor. “Actually…it happened a couple of times. I just assumed that because he was an investor…or something that he’d okayed it with you because you…lived in the same house and….” He trails off, biting his lip nervously as he looks back up. His disappointment dims his eyes.  
  
Jared ignores Milo’s inner turmoil in favour of gripping his fists and trying not to upend his entire desk. They kept cash in that safe; cash that Jared hadn’t even realised was missing because he didn’t care. If he had cared, he would have insisted on cheques that could be cashed, or credit card payments instead of accepting whatever the hell people wanted to pay in. If he’d been responsible he would have hired someone to at least take care of the money side of things for him, but no, stubbornness and pride kept him from seeking help. He was too busy resenting the fact that Diane forced Amy on him, and wanted to force Jeff on him as well.  
  
At least one good thing has come out of this - he has proof that Jeff Morgan is a thief and saboteur.


	5. Part Four

## 

“Why would Jeff steal money from you?” Jensen asks when he meets Jared at the Morgan House. Technically he’s here to see if he can pick up anything from Diane, but Jared’s still a little weirded out by the whole medium thing so he’s stalling. He’s not so sure how it works, or whether he can stand by and watch as Jensen tries to communicate with what he perceives to be thin air. It’s weird and…a little crazy. Jared’s the kind of guy who believes in cold, hard facts, not strange chills and visions. Of course, Jensen’s been a… _medium_  for a long time. According to what he’s been told his skill manifested when he was eighteen and since then he’s been able to see spirits. Jared hasn’t really asked about it much because he’s afraid that he won’t be able to stop himself from asking Jensen to bend a spoon, even though that’s not what Jensen does.  
  
He’s kind of a dick that way.  
  
“Jared?” Jensen is looking at him expectantly when Jared shakes himself out of his thoughts. He frowns before remembering that they’re talking about Jeff.  
  
“Oh, probably to prove that I’m irresponsible and wasting all the money and effort that Diane put into the company,” he says. “Guess, I proved him right.”  
  
Jensen shrugs. “Not really. Him stealing money kind of meant that you were already doomed. And okay, maybe you  _should_  have noticed, but it doesn’t make what he did right.” Jared kind of likes that Jensen has his back and that the same time, he can call Jared out on his own lapses. With anyone else he’d probably get all defensive, but he can tell that Jensen’s just calling it like he sees it. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that he can tell anything about Jensen. He does  _not_  need to go down that road.  
  
“I guess. Hey, so do you want a tour of the house?” Jared asks. It’s been a while since he’s explored this place, mostly he just sticks to his room, and the kitchen. Sam, the cook, is always a good laugh and she makes the best chocolate brownies ever. Despite that, the house is pretty impressive and it might be a good way to come to terms with the fact that Jensen’s here to see if he can communicate with a  _dead person_.  
  
“Sure, why not?” Jensen replies. “I’ve always wanted to see a gratuitously lavish house with my own eyes and not just on  _MTV Cribs_.” Jared snorts. The house is a little ridiculous; and it was even before all of the additions they’ve made since Jared moved in.  
  
“Wait until you see the meditation room,” Jared says. “And the indoor basketball court.”  
  
Jensen raises an eyebrow. “There’s an indoor basketball court?!”  
  


  
The last stop on their (too long) tour is the home theater. It’s kind of bittersweet for Jared; this was one of the first places Diane brought him to after that whirlwind court case where the judge agreed that he could serve out his probation here. It was kind of surreal to go from his poky, dusty apartment to living somewhere like this. To this day, he still prefers that tiny box apartment.  
  
“You see, this is one thing I can’t understand. Why would you need a 30-seat movie theater in your house? Are you really ever going to have that many people over at once? And the giant screen? Is it really any better than watching movies on a less giant screen?”  
  
“People with money are kind of crazy like that,” Jared retorts. “But this screen  _is_ pretty sweet. Do you want to watch a movie? I think someone might even keep the snack bar stocked at all times.”  
  
“Why? And sure, why not? It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything.”  
  
“Well, Aldis and his daughters are allowed to use the main house even though they live in the guest house, so I guess they do. Everyone else is probably too busy for movies.” He picks out a DVD without really looking at it, and makes his way back over to the ‘projection’ room. Really, it’s just a walk-in-closet type of thing where the DVD player is kept. He pops in the disc and hits play, knowing that they’ll have a few seconds before the DVD starts. He always kinds of misses the way the old VHS tapes came with the commercials at the start.”  
  
“This ‘snack bar’ is sadly depleted of all alcohol,” Jensen muses sadly when Jared joins him at the small area towards the left of the room. “But there’s Orangina. Yay.”  
  
Jared wrinkles his nose, and leans over to grab a coke. There are paper cups and straws (probably bought solely for the purpose of the cup holders attached to the chairs but he can’t really be bothered to pour it into one. Despite his comment, Jensen grabs a bottle of Orangina and they move over to the front of the room and settle down in the plush, black chairs. The lights dim automatically and Jared leans back and shuts his eyes briefly. He feels bad for completely blocking Jensen from trying to his whole medium thing, but maybe it just isn’t a good idea for him to know about it. He feels as if she’s watching him all the time and he feels as though she’s still angry at him and that it’s always directed at him. He’s uncomfortable in his own skin and he wants to forget everything, just for a little while.  
  
Jared maybe should have looked at the DVD closer because watching Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman completely fail at being ‘friends with benefits’ is not his idea of a good time, especially given the similarity of his and Jensen’s situation. After about an hour, he’s had as much as he can take and he turns over to glance at Jensen who looks as uncomfortable as he feels.  
  
“So this movie kind of blows, right?” he says.  
  
Jensen barely looks at him. “Yeah. Right.” Desperately thinking of a way to help make things less awkward, Jared’s mind goes back to the basketball court.  
  
“Hey, do you wanna maybe play one on one hoops? I bet you $20 that I can kick your ass.” Jensen’s slow to respond, and Jared thinks that he should have just suggested that they call it a day. Jensen grins at him though,  
  
“You better get ready to pay up, playa.” He grimaces and adds. “Just forget that I said that. Yes, I want to play.”  
  
“Sure thing, ‘ _playa_ ’,” Jared laughs, standing up to stop the DVD. They leave the room as they find it and Jared goes to get them a set of clothes to wear. He doesn’t think Jensen would appreciate going home in sweaty jeans.  
  
It turns out that playing basketball helps a little too much when it comes to relieving the tension. Sure, they’re having fun, pushing and brushing against each other and tussling over the ball good-naturedly, and Jared can feel the heat rising between them, the attraction is palpable and he can’t stop what eventually happens. One minute Jared is losing 6-5 and the next, the basketball’s forgotten and he has Jensen back against a wall as they make out furiously, tongues battling as they push and shove at each other. Jared’s missed this, the feel of Jensen’s plush lips, the way he tastes, the way the planes of Jensen’s body press against his so tightly that there’s not one iota of space between them. He can feel Jensen’s cock digging into his thigh and he can’t help sobering up. If they want to be able to be around each other, or be friends, Jared can’t do this.  
  
“Jensen…” he pulls back and rests his forehead against Jensen’s as he tries to regain his breath. “We should stop.” Jensen looks like he wants to protest but instead he slides out from behind Jared, and moves away. His lips are red and swollen and for a second Jared wants to take it back. He doesn’t though because their burgeoning friendship is far too important for him to ruin it because he can’t control himself. He likes Jensen, likes him a lot, but he’s still  _Jared_ , the guy who’s incapable of sustainable of maintaining a relationship. Jared gets the feeling that he’s hurt Jensen enough; he doesn’t want to give in and find himself breaking Jensen’s heart a few months down the line.  
  
“Yeah, you’re right,” Jensen says breathlessly. “We should stop.” Jared bites his lip as he contemplates a response. It turns out that he needn’t bother, because Jensen turns and leaves the room. Jared thinks about calling out to him, but he doesn’t want to send out anymore mixed signals.  
  
The silence following Jensen’s departure is deafening.  
  


  
Jared wakes up in time for breakfast the morning, so he goes down to the kitchen to see if Sam’s made anything. Usually he skips it or grabs something on the way to work, but he doesn’t exactly have anything to do at the office and he’s planning on avoiding Chad and Jensen as long as he can today.  
  
“Detective Kane called the house earlier,” Jeff says from behind his newspaper when Jared walks in. His boots squeak on the tiled floor as he sits across from Jeff. “Says he wants to talk to you. He’ll be around before lunch.”  
  
Matt snorts from where he’s buttering his low-wheat-grain toast, or whatever the hell it is. For a health-freak, Matt’s always been a little high strung. Maybe the lack of sugar has stunted him somehow.  
  
“Ignore him,” Danneel says with an eye roll.  
  
Jeff lowers his paper and glares at her. “Why are you still here? Diane fired you, honey. Frieda overheard the conversation and she told me all about it. I also recall informing you that you had two days to get out of the house.”  
  
“My employment contract clearly states that I have two months following termination to find alternative accommodation," Danneel says.  
  
"That's a shame," Jeff replies snootily. “Can we trust you to keep your hands to yourself for that long?" ‘  
  
"I only took that stuff because your sister was being a complete bitch," Danneel shoots back. "You people think you can just treat people however you want." Jared frowns as he remembers that Danneel's on the list of their prospective murderers. Could she have been so angry about Diane firing her that she killed her?  
  
"If you don't like it, you should have gotten a new job," Matt snickers.  
  
"Or gone to college," Jeff adds. Jared would normally speak up at this point, but Danneel seems like she can hold her own, he’s not going to undermine her.  
  
"Fuck you, asshole, I have a degree," Danneel retorts. "Not that it's any business of yours." With that she saunters out of the room, calling out a few choice names as she goes.  
  
"Oh well, one leech down, one to go," Matt says airily. He gives Jared a pointed look. Jared can’t help being amused by his countenance.  
  
He smiles at Matt darkly. "Well, I do have an apartment that I own, courtesy of Diane. Oh, and I own a third of this place. I'm already home, baby."  
  
"Will you guys just knock it off," Amy says from where she's sitting beside Matt. Jared's at least glad to see that she's eating bacon and not elderflower and berries or whatever the hell Matt's got. If Amy stops acting like manners had gone out of fashion and suddenly decides that she has to divorce Matt, Jared thinks that they might actually be able to get along, but only after he confronts her about the poor bookkeeping.  
  
"It is way too early for a pissing contest," Tom says blearily from his own position on the table.  
  
"Don't you have weeds to pull?" Jeff snaps. "Seriously, the mistake we made was allowing the help to interact with us." He tosses his newspaper down and leaves. Matt and Amy follow soon after.  
  
"Looks like someone isn't coping with his grief," Tom says forlornly, watches their retreating figures fade into the distance. "Jeff's not usually that much of an asshole."  
  
Jared snorts. "To you maybe."  
  
"Maybe," Tom says with a shrug. "He's not a bad guy once you get to know him."  
  
"You sound like Diane." The words are out of Jared's mouth before he can stop them. Tom isn't fazed. In fact, Jared is sure that he sees the other man's eyes darken. Tom's also on their list but Jared's not really seeing how she and Tom are connected in anyway. It’s not like Diane was overly concerned about the gardening.  
  
"No disrespect but Diane was a wolf in sheep's clothing," Tom says slowly. "Jeff's a sharp shooter. I know which one I prefer." He also stands up to leave and Jared can only stare at his retreating figure in shock.  
  
What the hell was that about?

  


  
Jared doesn't really have time to find out what Tom's deal is because he decides to go and talk to Jeff about what Milo told him. He wants it to be a private conversation (although he's probably going to regret that later). He finds Jeff in his home office, sitting behind his desk.  
  
"What do you want?" Jeff asks when he peers over the top of his computer.  
  
"To talk."  
  
"I think we've done enough of that today," Jeff says with a sigh. "Contrary to what my sister thought, I don't really enjoy arguing with you."  
  
"Coulda fooled me," Jared mutters softly. He raises his voice, "I'm not here to argue. I'm just wondering why you've been robbing my business." It hits him then that Jeff probably wasn't the one to tamper with the security footage in the house, because he didn't even have the foresight to make sure he wasn't caught on camera at Padascape.  
  
Jeff tenses visibly, his hand stilling on this computer mouse as guilt spreads across his features. Jared has to fight hard to refrain from calling out 'BUSTED!'.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about. And even if I did, there’s no way that you can prove anything.” Jeff’s face smoothens out into a blank, passive expression that probably works a treat during his stupid work meetings. It’s just a shame that Jared actually has evidence.  
  
“Really?” he says, while holding up his phone. “This isn’t you?” He loads up the security camera footage and plays it for Jeff to see. “What I don’t get is why you would basically steal from your own sister to prove some kind of stupid point.” Jeff rolls his eyes at Jared’s words and leans back in his chair.  
  
“Not everything is about you, Padalecki,” he says quietly. “Just remember that.”  
  
“Okay, then explain!” Jared says. “What reason could you possibly have to do this? You’ve got money – you don’t exactly need more of it.”  
  
“Oh don’t act like you don’t know,” Jeff snaps. “Diane did tell you  _everything_  after all.”  
  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jared says. He doesn’t bother responding to the comment about Diane. It seems a little petty to keep bringing her into their arguments. She’s dead, for God’s sake.  
  
Jeff laughs harshly. “I don’t have any money, okay. It’s all gone. All of it.” Jared frowns. That can’t be true. He's the majority stakeholder of the hotel after all, and owns a third of the house. That all adds up to quite a reasonable amount of wealth. The only logical conclusion that Jared come to is that Jeff’s lost his damn mind.  
  
“Do you really expect me to believe that?” he asks. “How stupid do you think I am?”  
  
Jeff eyes him warily. “Is that a rhetorical question or do you actually want me to answer that?” Jared would usually have no qualms about going over there and punching Jeff in his face, but he knows that he can’t do anything that will make him seem violent. Plus his therapist claims that he has anger management issues, despite the fact that Jared regularly resists the urge to punch stupid people. He’s not about to prove her right.  
  
“Explain.” Jeff must hear something in his voice because he sobers up and sits up straight.  
  
“Fine…I…I owe a lot of people a lot of money, okay?” he says. “I made a few investments here and there and used my possessions as collateral. The market crash means that I didn’t get the return I was expecting.”  
  
“You didn’t get any return at all did you?” Jared says with realisation. “That still doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t you go to Diane for help? Why steal from  _me_  of all people?”  
  
Jeff sighs deeply and puts his head in hands. “I asked her for help. And she did help me – at first. But then I started asking for too much and she told me to sort myself out.”  
  
“That doesn’t sound like her.”  
  
“Oh, what would you know?” Jeff says testily. “She might have been happy to splash the cash on you, but you were her pet project. What else could she do? Hang you out to dry?” Jared can tell that they’re not going to get anywhere today. Jeff’s not going to apologise, or even admit that what he did was wrong. Jared doesn’t need him to, in all honesty. It wouldn’t mean much to him at this point.  
  
“The day she died,” Jared starts, “You were the last one to arrive at dinner, and she told me that you two were meeting for lunch. I heard you talking to the cops that night. You said that you hadn't seen her since the morning!"  
  
"I don't see how that's any of your business," Jeff states. "But I didn't lie. We spoke before the two of you went on your little breakfast."  
  
"She told me that she was going to talk to you at lunch," Jared says.  
  
"She didn't show, okay?" Jeff snaps. "And I don't blame her...I wasn't lying at the wake. We did argue about you. She found out about me stealing money from you." Jared nods to himself. Now that explains why she'd been so off at breakfast, but not why she'd insisted on Jared still trying to make peace with Jeff. Why would she want that even after finding out that Jeff was stealing from him?  
  
"She said that she wouldn't tell you, so long as I helped you get back on track," Jeff continues. "I refused and she said she'd go to the cops.  
  
"And what, you wanted to shut her up?" Jared asks. "Is that why you killed her?"  
  
Jeff's face whitens with shock. "I know that I haven't been the nicest person to but you really think that I'd kill my own sister?" Jared knows that Jeff didn't do it. He knew that before he came here, but a part of him can't help feeling as if he's earned the right to make Jeff feel small. It's nothing that Jeff hasn't done to him.  
  
"I believe you," he says. "But there's got to be some other reason why she wouldn't show."  
  
Jeff sighs. "You're not going to let this go are you? Jesus. I put out feelers about the house and word got out. She found out. She was pissed. The end."  
  
"Wait, but, you only own a third of this place. How exactly did you put out feelers?"  
  
Jeff laughs bitterly. "It wouldn't be hard to forge documents."  
  
"Wow," Jared says. "You know I could stand here and berate you for taking out your shit on me, but I'm not going to. Instead you can live with the guilt for the rest of your life." When Jeff doesn't respond, he turns and leaves quietly. He doesn't have anything else to say.

  


  
Tom's words stick with Jared and he finds himself watching the other man a lot more closely until his curiosity eventually gets the better of him. He waits until the two on-duty security guards, Rosenbaum and Hartley go on their hourly patrol (or rather, their sneaky cigarette break) and slips into the security room and snags the master key for Tom’s room. Jared’s always found it weird how Tom started off commuting to the house until one day, when Diane suddenly announced that he’d be staying there. Apparently the other man had been going through some kind of roommate situation that Jared didn’t really care about then, and he still doesn’t. There’s no denying that the whole thing is a little weird. It’s not like planting tulips is an everyday job; and Tom’s proposed organic vegetable patch is still non-existent.  
  
He’s barely been in the room for five minutes when it opens. Jared looks up, fully prepared to come up with some lie but he pauses. It’s not Tom. It’s Danneel.  
  
“What are you doing in here?” she asks. There’s no suspicion in her voice; she just sounds curious.  
  
“Just...looking for a...my jacket. Frieda keeps getting me and Tom mixed up!” Jared laughs nervously. “Maybe I should start doing my own laundry.”  
  
Danneel raises an eyebrow. “Maybe you should.”  
  
“Is there something you need help with, Danneel?” Jared tries to lay on the charm, smiling at her faintly under the glare of her unwavering gaze.  
  
“I was Diane’s assistant for what, three years?” Danneel says. “I know a lot of things about her. Things that might help you find out who killed her. And no, it wasn’t me. If I murdered everybody who’d fired me, I’d have my own special news segment.” Jared doesn’t know whether or not to believe her; he finds it kind of odd that she seems to be so cold, even though her employer of three years is dead. She must have truly disliked Diane.  
  
“Why exactly did Diane fire you?” Jared asks as he recalls the meeting over the will. “Jeff said that she accused you of stealing?”  
  
Danneel rolls her eyes. “I didn’t steal anything from her. I just happen to have a conscience. She was being blackmailed by some guy and I had to be the one to communicate with these people, and eventually I got tired of it. I told her to go the police and she got pissed off and fired me.”  
  
“If that’s true, why did she tell Jeff that you were a thief?”  
  
“She didn’t want him to know the real truth,” Danneel says. Jared pushes down the flare of irritation that rises in his stomach. He hates it when people speak in code; he doesn’t have the time or energy to play ‘riddle me this’ with anyone right now. “You look a little stressed, so I’ll give you a clue. The envelope you got at the charity dinner.” Jared doesn’t even need to cast his mind back. He remembers that night clearly. Danneel asked the waiter to give him that envelope with the details on whatever kind of deal Diane made with the manager of his children’s home.  
  
“And I take it that you didn’t open the letter to Sterling that I gave you?” Jared frowns. “Open it and then we’ll talk.” She leaves without saying another word and Jared goes back to rummaging through Tom’s belongings. The room is kind of scarce, in that there isn’t much by the way of decoration, or even any clutter. For all of Jared’s gripes about living here, there are still signs that he actually sleeps in his room. With a sigh, he starts to shove Tom’s V-necks back into his bottom drawer. He’s on the last shirt when something slips and falls onto the ground. Jared barely glances at it, folding the shirt carefully, wincing as he feels a twinge in his back. He reaches down to pick up whatever dropped and stops, his eyes widening as he finally sees what is.

  


  
Jared goes over to Jensen’s place later that day in order to bring him and Chad up to speed. Technically, he’s only supposed to have been sussing Jeff out, but the conversation with Danneel and his finding in Tom’s room at least make it seem as though he knows what he’s doing. If anything he’s kind of grateful that he can help out; the only thing keeping Jared together is trying to figure out who the identity of the bastard that killed Diane.  
  
“Banging the gardener, huh?” Chad says with a low whistle as he looks at the picture that had slipped onto the floor in Tom’s room. “Classy.” Jared rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. He’s still in two minds over his discovery. If Chad and Jensen weren’t trying to figure out who killed her, Jared would have kept the picture of Tom and Diane making out to himself. Alas, it’s starting to feel more and more like he didn’t really know Diane at all and it sucks. Jared’s not sure if he feels pissed at himself or her; yes, they were close, but they still lived their own separate lives. He didn’t tell her everything and she certainly never told him everything, yet this still stings.  
  
“Didn’t you once try to have sex with a chair?” Jensen says and Chad flips him the bird. Jared’s not sure if he’s just trying to lighten the mood, but he really wouldn’t put it past Chad. “Anyway, so she had some kind of relationship with Tom. Does this bump him up on our ‘whodunit’ list?” Jared doesn’t answer because they’re the investigative minds here; they should be telling him.  
  
“From a lawyer perspective, I’d say yes,” Chad says. “But in reality, if they were at the point where Tom was so pissed that he wanted to kill her….why the fuck would she invite him to dinner?”  
  
“She invited Kim, and they were barely speaking. Same thing with Danneel based on what Jared has told us about their conversation,” Jensen points out. “There was the argument with Jeff, the argument with Jared and well…maybe she was just kind of serious about her dinner plans.”  
  
“The Morgans are crazy competitive,” Jared admits. “They go all out over everything, even tennis matches.”  
  
“Rich people  _still_  play tennis?”  
  
Jared sighs. “Why don’t you ask your Dad, Chad?” He glares at his friend, daring him to say something else. Unsurprisingly he does.  
  
“He’s too busy smoking expensive cigars and pretending that he knows how to play golf.” Chad glares back at him and Jared wonders how the hell the mood in the room suddenly became so tense.  
  
Jensen clears his throat loudly. “Back to the point. So even though Diane wasn’t particularly on good terms with Tom, Danneel or Kim, she still invited them. The question is if they’re capable of murder.”  
  
“I say that we rule out Danneel, and Jeff,” Jared finally looks away from Chad. “She supposedly has all this dirt on Diane, so…there’d be no reason for her to want to kill her when she could potentially make herself a tidy windfall.”  
  
“What about Jeff?” Jensen asks. He gives Jared an inquisitive look. There’s something in his voice, a hint of protectiveness perhaps, and Jared supposes that he  _has_ complained about Jeff a lot in the past few days. “One conversation with him and suddenly you know what he’s capable of?” Jared can see where Jensen’s coming from, but he’d like to think that he’s a good judge of character. Sure, Jeff’s a bit of a bastard but in all the years he’s been around the man there’s one thing that Jared knows; Jeff loves his family. He hasn’t told Chad and Jensen about Jeff admitting to trying to sell the house under Matt and Diane, because he can’t bring himself to believe that Jeff would have gone that for.  
  
“If Jared says he doesn’t think was Jeff then that’s good for me,” Chad says, seemingly unaware about the growing tension between him and Jensen. “His story checks out; his financials are a mess, the hotel is haemorrhaging money, but I can’t see any reason why he’d want to kill his sister.”  
  
“Fine, whatever,” Jensen says. “So we’re down to five now. Tom, Kim, Samantha, Amy and Matt, unless of course, Jared’s suddenly discovered that there’s no way Matt could so such a thing.”  
  
“Whoa, whoa, I think we all need a time out,” Chad says, not that there’s really a situation to diffuse. Jared has no intention of responding to whatever argument Jensen is trying to bait him into because he knows that he’ll probably be on the losing side. “We all need to go out and get wasted.” Jensen’s phone rings before anyone can reply and he excuses himself and takes the call out in the hallway.  
  
“Probably a prospective client,” Chad muses to himself. “Did you, by any chance, ask Jeff about Samantha?” Jared shakes his head. He considered it, but decided not to because he wants a chance to talk to her himself.  
  
“I will pay you guys for your services by the way,” Jared says as he realises that Chad and Jensen have pretty much dropped everything to help him. “I have some savings and stuff.”  
  
“Dude, we don’t want your money; you’re our friend,” Chad replies with a fond eye roll. “What I do want is a chance to use the Jacuzzi in that kick ass house of yours.”  
  
Jared sighs. “It’s not really  _my_ house.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Chad retorts. “Anyway, look, I need you and Jensen to sort out whatever girly crap drama you’re going through so he can see if he can pick up anything from Diane in the house. That means no basketball – or male ball - shaped distractions.”  
  
Jared sighs once again. That sounds easy enough.  
  
Right?

  


  
The next evening, they finally manage to make it to a bar, one that Jared’s never been in, but what the hell, so long as there’s alcohol he doesn’t really give a fuck. He just wants to forget everything just for one night. About Diane; about how his business is slowly going down the toilet (thanks to Jeff) and the awkwardness with Jensen, who seems to have a similar plan because twenty minutes after they reach the bar; he goes to get another drink and disappears. When they next spot him, he’s talking to some guy at the bar. From the way he’s laughing coyly and smiling, it’s not a platonic conversation.  
  
“Looks like someone’s planning on getting lucky tonight,” Chad says. “I can’t wait for Sophia to get back from New York.” Jared nods, wondering for the millionth time how Chad and Sophia even manage to have a functional relationship when he can’t even bring himself to start one with the guy who’s literally 30 feet away from him.  
  
“We could all do with losing some steam,” he murmurs, taking his eyes off from Jensen. He turns to face Chad who’s giving him a look of disbelief.  
  
“Really? You slept with this guy on and off for a year and you’re not even bothered that he’s looking to hook up with someone else right in front of you?” Chad doesn’t know about their little dalliance yesterday and Jared doesn’t really want to tell him, but he does anyway because maybe talking about it will help with his conflicted emotions.  
  
“So…you don’t want to start anything with him,” Chad says slowly. “Yet, you’re more than happy to just make out with him when the mood suits you.”  
  
“He kissed me!” Jared practically yells, not caring that it might not be true. Truth be told, he wasn’t really sure who made the first move, it had been kind of a blur. “And I…it just happened. It wasn’t intentional. I’m not looking to start a relationship with anyone and I c—okay, why are you looking at me like that?”  
  
Chad takes a sip of his beer and gives Jared an innocent look. “Like what?”  
  
“Like you don’t believe a word that I’m saying!”  
  
“You just answered your own question,” Chad points out. “And yeah, I don’t believe the lie you’re trying to sell yourself, Jared. I don’t understand why you won’t let yourself to be happy. You like Jensen and he thinks the world of you, and that was a surprise to me. Believe me when I say that he has just as much relationship hang ups as you do.”  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jared asks. “Why did you try and set us up if he didn’t want to be in a relationship?”  
  
“That’s not the point. Are you going to grow a pair or sit here and watch Jensen pick up someone?”  
  
“Neither.” He grabs his jacket, and stands up to leave. Chad tries calling after him but Jared ignores him. He came out to get a drink in _peace,_  not to be badgered.

  


  
The next bar he goes to,  _Joe’s_ , is a little rowdier than the one he was at with Chad and Jensen. It doesn’t really bother him until some asshole starts bothering his ex-girlfriend (as of three minutes ago). She reminds Jared of his old friend Sandy (who he should probably give a call), and he has to physically stop himself from getting involved. Of course the guy decides to get a little violent, and he grabs her arm and yanks her back. The bartender is just watching the scene with a horrified look on his face, clearly having no intention of stopping things before they get out of hand.  
  
“Dude, call the cops,” Jared says with an eye roll.  
  
“That guy is my cousin,” the bartender says nervously. “I can’t call the cops on him.”  
  
“Get off me, Randy,” the woman is shrieking as Randy tightens his grip on her arm. Jared takes a deep breath and stands up. He takes a couple of steps forward, pausing only to glare at the bartender. He makes his way over to Randy, and taps him on the shoulder. Randy loosens his grip unconsciously and the woman scoots away.  
  
“I think she’d like to be left alone, Randy,” he says calmly. Randy stares at him in confusion. His eyes are misty and unfocused, with his scraggly dirt brown hair all over the place. Jared can’t help wondering if this guy is lit or something. He probably should have just called the cops himself.  
  
“Who the hell are you?” Randy asks.  
  
Jared glares at him. “It doesn’t matter who I am, if I catch you hassling this lady again, you’ll answer to me.” Randy doesn’t respond he just stares, but Jared is sure that the man has gotten the message. Randy’s ex-girlfriend shoots him an appreciative look and he nods at her before starting to make his way back to his seat at the bar. Before he gets there, there’s a tap on his shoulder, similar to the way he greeted Randy. Jared turns around and within a second the meat of Randy’s fist connects with his face. Pain flares up around his right eye and he staggers backwards slightly. Commotion breaks out as Randy tries to swing for him again. Jared straightens up quickly, grabs Randy’s fist and twists his arm so that it’s pressed behind his back.  
  
“Get off me you, asshole,” Randy growls as he struggles. Jared lets go, only because he doesn’t want to end up in trouble. If he had his way, he’d rearrange Randy’s stupid face.  
  
“You’re lucky that I’m the bigger man,” he spits out.  
  
“Oh, I think you’ll find that I’m the lucky one. See I have friends here who’ve got my back. You know what I mean, kid?” Jared looks up to see two more guys approaching them, with snarls painted on their faces. He stifles a groan.  
  
He can tell that it’s going to be a long night.


	6. Part Five

  


## 

Jensen is woken up at ass o’clock in the morning by the sound of cell phone blaring loudly. He thinks about ignoring it but he and Chad adopted an 'always pick up the phone strategy' back when he'd been clubbed over the head by an angry spirit who could somehow touch things. With a groan, he leans over and answers it.  
  
"Oh, Jensen, thank God," Jared says in a huge breath. "I tried calling Chad, but he didn't answer and then they tried to give me this joke of a lawyer who was all like, 'just plead guilty' even though I was the one who got my ass kicked. Can you believe that?"  
  
Jensen sighs to himself. "Okay, take a deep breath and start from the beginning."  
  
"I got arrested last night," Jared says. "And--"  
  
"Where are they holding you?" Jensen grabs the pen and notepad that he always keeps on his nightstand and scribbles down the details. “Okay, I’ll be there in a bit.”

  


  
Driving with a hangover is no fun, and neither is sitting in the waiting area of a police station, wedged in between a mom and her three infant kids and guy who smells like mustard. The desk officer directed him to sit here half an hour ago and Jensen’s not heard anything since. He’s just about to go up there and make a fuss when there’s a loud buzzing sound and Jared emerges from the back of the station. Even though it seems as though he’s free to go, the officer directing him out stops to say something. Before Jensen can even get up, a young woman rushes over and pulls him into a hug as she whispers something into his ear. After she pulls away from him, Jared gives her a wan smile and pats her on the shoulder. He makes his way over to Jensen.  
  
“They decided to let me go,” he says grimly. “Maybe they do have some common sense after all.” Jensen wonders if he’s an ass for thinking that a ‘hi, thanks for coming down here at ass o’clock in the morning’ wouldn’t go amiss, but Jared’s already halfway out of the station. Jensen hurries after him, muttering to himself under his breath. It’s starting to feel as if he’s  _always_  chasing after Jared.  
  
“So, what happened after you left the bar last night?” Jensen asks. He didn’t even see Jared leave; he’d gotten back to the booth to see Chad sitting there sullenly and Jared’s spot empty. Eventually he went back to hang out with the guy at the bar, because Chad was obviously not in a caring and sharing mood and he actually wanted to have a good time.  
  
“Bar fight.” Jensen barely registers the fact that Jared’s responded at first, but then he does and anger flares up inside him.  
  
“A bar fight?” he spits out. “Are you kidding me? Do you want to give Detective Kane more reasons to be on your ass? You know he’s going to hear about this.”  
  
“It wasn’t my fault.” That’s all Jared has to offer by way of explanation and it makes Jensen even angrier. He opens his mouth to voice his displeasure when he feels a searing pain in his head. He gasps and grips onto Jared’s arm tightly as his vision starts to swim. “Shit, Jensen, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”  _No, I’m not okay, you idiot_  is what Jensen wants to say, but he can’t get any words out he just grips Jared’s arm tighter. He remembers the last time he’d felt like this, it was at some kind of memorial for people who’d died in a bus crash. He also remembers driving past a cemetery two seconds before he reached the police station.  
  
“Cemetery,” he says drowsily. “Too many spirits.”  
  
“Okay, I’m going to get you out of here,” Jared says hurriedly. Where did you park your car?” Jared asks. Jensen makes a blind gesture that he hopes conveys ‘around the corner’. Jared’s low mumble tells him that he doesn’t quite manage it, but eventually he seems to find it because Jensen’s bundled into the passenger seat and about a minute later they’re on the road. Jensen feels the welcome relief of the cold air it blows into the car via the open windows. The dizziness begins to reside and he takes a deep breath. Fuck. Jensen’s been bombarded by multiple spirits at once before, but this is the first time it’s ever been so intense.  
  
“Are you feeling better?” Jared’s question is drowned out by the squeal of the tyres as he makes a right turn, leaving the sound of angry horns blaring in the distance. Jensen prays to God that he doesn’t get a ticket.  
  
“Not as good as I would be if you didn’t drive like a complete lunatic.” Jared doesn’t say anything and seconds later the car comes to a halt. He gets out without a word, leaving Jensen staring up at the sign that clearly designates the area as a no parking zone. Jared’s back within a couple of minutes and he tosses a bottle of water in Jensen’s lap, with a gesture that presumably means ‘drink this’. Jensen mumbles thanks and unscrews the cap; he is kind of thirsty.  
  
By some miracle they make it back to the house unscathed (though Jensen’s not sure that he can say that much about his car) and Jared spends a couple of minutes fussing around him before Jensen finally loses his cool and yells for him to sit down.  
  
“Maybe I should just go,” Jared says his voice uncharacteristically nervous. “Leave you to get some rest of something.” Jensen should let him go, he knows that he should, but he doesn’t want to. That should scare him, especially after everything that Jared’s said to him in the last couple of weeks, but he doesn’t want to be on his own right now. And he wants to know what the hell Jared managed to get himself arrested for – or rather, how exactly he managed to get involved in a bar fight.  
  
“You can stay if you want,” Jensen says with a mock-easiness. “I probably won’t be able to rest for a while anyway. Head’s still ringing.”  
  
“Does that happen often?” Jared asks. He actually looks concerned as opposed to the unsure expression he usually wears when they discuss anything relating to Jensen being a medium.  
  
“No, just when a whole bunch of spirits are trying to communicate with me at once,” Jensen says. “I don’t exactly make a habit of cruising past cemeteries.” He doesn’t mean to say that the ordeal was Jared’s fault, yet guilt flashes across Jared’s face.  
  
“Yeah, sorry about that,” Jared says slowly. “Chad wasn’t answering and I didn’t really have anyone to call.”  
  
“What exactly were you arrested for?” Jensen says, ignoring the apology.  
  
Jared sighs. “Some guy was harassing his girl and I stepped in and all hell broke loose. He and his friends tried to take me on and in the end the cops were called. It wasn’t really a big deal. She came forward and told the police what happened and they let me go.” Jensen can tell that Jared’s trying to underplay what happened so he doesn’t press for any more details.  
  
“Did they hurt you? “ Well, not police-specific details anyway. Apart from a scratch on his face, just above his right cheekbone, there’s no evidence that Jared’s been in a fight, nevertheless, there are a whole bunch of places where he could have bruises. And as much as Jensen’s been trying to let go of whatever the hell they have (or had) going on, he can’t. He can’t just turn off the switch and pretend that he’s not in love with Jared, or pretend that he doesn’t care if Jared’s hurt. His problem is that he cares too much.  
  
“I’m fine,” Jared says. “Just a couple of bruises here and there but I’ll live. Anyway, you really should get some rest. You look beat.” He looks at Jensen, eyes lingering on his face for a touch too long. Jensen stares back and the tension is almost palpable; so thick that they could probably cut it with a knife. They should both pull away, before things get even more messed up, however, they never do. It always comes down to this – Jared’s a flame and Jensen’s a moth that doesn’t know when to lie down and die. He’s going to keep coming along until he gets himself burnt.

  


  
“That does  _not_  look like a ‘couple of bruises’!” It’s late in the evening and Jensen finds Jared down in the kitchen drinking a glass of water. There wasn’t really time to open up Jensen’s curtains during the whole stumbling-to-the-bed-while-clothes-fall-off-one-by-one dance that they did, and truth be told Jensen probably wouldn’t have noticed either way. Jared kind of has that effect on him.  
  
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” Jensen’s not really sure how Jared can say that when his torso is covered with mottled red and purple bruises. He can only imagine what the other guy(s) looks like.  
  
“Jared…” Jensen stops because he knows that whatever he says about the state of Jared is just going to fall on deaf ears, so he’s going to let Jared do his whole macho-butch-silent thing and direct him to the medicine cabinet later on. “Chad left me a message, said he’s stuck in somewhere in Orange County helping his Dad with some case.”  
  
“You do realise that just means that Sophia’s in town?” Jared smirks and Jensen feel his heart do that lurch thing it does whenever Jared looks at him that way. “Anyway, that’s cool; gives you a chance to come to the house and do your whole medium thing.”  
  
“Are you sure you can handle that or do you plan on hiding in the basement while I try to talk to Diane?” Jensen replies. “You kept coming up with distractions last time we went over there.” Jared sets his glass down on the counter, grabs his shirt from where it’s hanging from his back pocket and slips it on over his head. Jensen wonders if Jared’s trying to deflect once again. Given all that’s happened today, it’d be nice if they could be over the whole ‘you being a medium is weird and awkward’ phase.  
  
Jensen’s not really expecting Jared’s response when it comes. “Do you think that I’m bad person?”  
  
He frowns. “No more than the next person.” Jared sighs and takes a seat by the breakfast bar.  
  
“It’s just that I have this way of pissing people off no matter how much I try not to,” Jared says. “I feel like I try to keep my distance and not upset people and I just… end up doing it anyway. I mean, there’s you, Jeff, Chad and Sandy and…maybe everyone I’ve ever met. I’ve let everyone down.”  
  
“What makes you say that?” Jensen’s not really sure where all of this is coming from. “You haven’t done anything to me and Chad’s one of your best friends. Sandy – I don’t know what the deal is there. And Jeff can go screw himself.”  
  
“I’ve done a lot to you, believe me,” Jared says with a bitter laugh. “And I don’t want to keep messing up anymore. I’ve got to find a way to stop pushing people away, and to stop running. I don’t want to run anymore. I…I think it’s time for me to find out who my birth parents are.”

  


  
The next day is when everything pretty much goes to shit. The day starts off normally enough. Jensen gets up early and makes Jared breakfast and they talk a little about how he’s going to go about finding his birth parents. He mentions a card he got from a ‘S. Padalecki’ the nurse he was apparently named after (which  _is_ a little weird). Chad leaves another message saying that he’ll be back.  
  
“So, are we going straight to the house or do you want to stop off somewhere?” Jensen asks once Jared’s done eating. “Because I’m not letting you drive my car ever again.” Jared laughs at that as he thumbs through his phone.  
  
“The house,” he says as they head towards the front door. “There’s something that I need to pick up and you can get all of that Diane stuff out of the way. I might head down to my office later; see what the hell’s happening there. We might actually have to start getting things going again.” Jensen doesn’t reply until they’re in the car and even then it’s more of an inquisitive look than a verbal response.  
  
“What’s that looking for?” Jared says as he fidgets in the passenger seat.  
  
“Well, you said you didn’t want to run the company anymore,” Jensen replies slowly. “And before that you were all ‘oh, Jeff is this and that’ and then suddenly you believe everything he’s saying.” Jensen knows that he shouldn’t keep harping on about Jeff but the situation just baffles him. He’s pissed off with Jeff on Jared’s behalf.  
  
“I know that you’ve got my back with the whole Jeff thing, but can we just leave it alone?”  
  
“Whatever you say,” Jensen says.  
  
Jared slips his shades down and turns to look out of the window. “As for the business, I have six staff relying on me to pay them and right now I’m paying them to do nothing – they’re probably worried about their jobs and while I’m maybe not all that interested in running it anymore, I can’t just leave them in the lurch.”  
  
Jensen can’t help wondering why it is that Jared thinks that he’s a bad person when it’s clear for anyone to see that he isn’t.

  


  
The craziness starts when Jensen’s standing in the middle of Diane’s room trying to feel if she’s around. Jared’s off somewhere looking for something while it’s his job to stand here and get whatever the hell information he can from Diane. There’s no real finesse to communicating with spirits – a lot of the time they come to him, so it’s just a matter of waiting for them to show up. He’s not sure if it’s some kind of magnetic pull that attracts spirits to him or vice versa, but it’s kind of awesome and annoying at the same time. When Jensen says that being a medium makes life difficult, he’s not kidding. Not only does it disrupt his life on a daily basis but he finds himself in situations like this – standing in a murder scene pretending that he doesn’t feel the cold chill the air right down to the bone. Her room is clearly a skeleton of its former self. There’s drop bags place over all of the furniture and it’s mostly devoid of any personal items. Someone has done a commendable job of trying to wash the blood off the wooden tiles but it’s still obvious what occurred in that particular area. They’ll probably get the tiles replaced eventually; when the dust has settled.  
  
“ _You’re back_.” Jensen almost jumps out of his skin as Diane’s voice sounds in his head. That’s another downside to being a medium. The spirits always seem to creep up on him every single time. “ _Didn’t think I’d see you for a while._ ” Jensen’s eyes stray down to the familiar blood stain on her dress. It doesn’t look as bright as it did before, almost as if it’s starting to fade.  
  
“Do you remember anything about that night?” He cuts straight to the chase, the same way he always does, because engaging a spirit can be dangerous. Forming personal connections make Jensen’s job that much harder and he’d like to stop learning things the hard way.  
  
“ _You’re going to have to be more specific._ ” Jensen rolls his eyes. Of course he does.  _“You do realise that I can see you, right?_ ”  
  
“I take it that you’re not having a good day.” This isn’t new either. Sometimes Jensen prefers the spirits who are always angry – at least their moods are easy to read.  
  
“ _The only thing that anyone does in this house is work, microwave leftovers and more work_ ,” Diane gripes. “ _It’s not exactly a cake walk being stuck here every day._ ”  
  
“Yeah, well, the sooner you remember something helpful, the sooner you can transcend to wh---“  
  
“ _Oh, spare me the speech_.” Jensen flounders, unsure about to say next. “ _I know you don’t mean any of that crap. And to answer your question – I remember taking a phone call a short while before it happened. Not my official phone line but…I…I had a burner phone.”_ Jensen doesn’t even bat an eye at her revelation; he’s heard more shocking things. Well. Maybe not really, but still, he’s used to spirits revealing all kinds of things.  
  
“And who were you talking to?”  
  
“ _No idea_.” Well, that was helpful. Jensen’s saved from being caught doing more eye rolling by Jared coming in. He shuts the door quietly behind him, his eyes fixed straight at the spot where the stain is. There’s a crumpled envelope in his hand and he looks irritated, angry even.  
  
“Anything helpful?” he asks, and there’s definitely an edge to his voice. Jensen should be questioning when he started to notice things like these; however, he thinks he was bound to pick up certain things as Jared’s glorified booty call.  
  
“Not quite…”  
  
“Why don’t you ask her why she paid off my children’s home?” Jared says tersely. Jensen winces inwardly…this won’t end well. Usually, he would refuse, but it's Jared. Jensen's willing to do anything to wipe that look from his face.  
  
“ _Danneel_   _is responsible for this, I bet._ ” Diane says from where she’s hovering by her bed. “ _Tell him that I did it for him_.” That response precedes a flurry of angry exchanges that Jensen is stuck relaying to the angry parties. Eventually, Jared throws his hands up in the air and storms out, leaving Jensen in an empty room, with the increasingly cold air seeping into his skin.

  


  
When Jensen tells Chad what happened, he doesn’t expect to be laughed at for a full five minutes. While Jensen is sure that one day he’ll find some humour in the situation, he didn’t really appreciate being yelled at for almost an hour while Jared and Diane hashed out a bunch of shit that they didn’t need to do in front of him. It’s one of Jensen’s rules really – no using him as a go-between in airing any grievances.  
  
“You made the rule, man,” Chad says. “It is your job to ensure that people stick to it. Though, I guess because it’s Jared you just ‘ _forgot_ ’.” As much as Jensen wants to deny it, it’s pretty much what happened. He could have refused to pass the messages along and ignored them both until they let it go, but he’s always has trouble with telling Jared ‘no’.  
  
"At least there was no flying glass this time around.” Though, Jensen doesn't really see that as a plus. If anything, talking to Diane didn't really give them insight on anything. They can look into the phone call, but that's all they have to go on. "So in the course of a day, Jared's managed to get arrested and somehow coerce you into helping him argue with a spirit."  
  
"He's  _your_  friend," Jensen says, rolling his eyes as Chad raises an eyebrow.  
  
"I'm not the one who's in love with him," Chad retorts. Jensen wants to argue his case, but it's obvious that Chad won't listen to a word he says regarding Jared. And even if he would, Jensen's not sure that he would be able to understate the whole Jared thing. Chad is right in saying that Jensen's feelings are getting in the way of the rules he set back when he was getting into the investigation business.  
  
Chad's phone rings. "Hey, Jared. Wait, wait. Slow down! They found what? Seriously? Where? Are they still at the house?" Chad asks a few more random questions before hanging up, and there's a grim expression on his face. He turns to look at Jensen.  
  
"They've found the murder weapon."  
  


 

  
Being back at another police station makes Jared feel a little uneasy, and he tries not to let it show. Detective Kane has been trying to goad him into an outburst for the better part of an hour, but Jared not in any mood to get into another argument. Not when he’s still pissed over his ‘conversation’ with Diane. There’s no more lingering doubt over Jensen’s abilities anymore; Jensen’s responses had been pure Diane. Even in death, she’s still not telling him the truth. Jared’s not sure what kind of secret is worth holding onto that much. She admitted making the payments, saying that it had been ‘what was best for Jared’, and that she’d gone as far as to continue paying them to stop them from leaking intimate details about Jared to the press. Jared doesn’t see why the fuck he has to be grateful. The only reason why the media are interested in him is because of her. He’s not stupid enough to believe that reason. In the midst of all the anger and accusations, he hadn’t given Jensen much time to find out about Tom or even open Sterling’s letter and by the time he got back to the house, Detective Kane and his cronies had been waiting to cart Jared into a squad car. This time he puts in a call to Chad, certain that Jensen won’t even bother to show up if he called.  
  
When Chad shows up, he finds his anger spilling over a little. "Turns out that the cops got an anonymous tip off about where the murder weapon was," he tells Chad. "Which led to them searching the house, and guess where they found it..."  
  
Chad blows out a breath. "In  _your_ room? What the fuck man?"  
  
“Apparently it’s been there the whole time and they didn’t actually search all of the rooms in the house before they took all their technical shit out away.”  
  
"You know this is the kind of shoddy police work that I would expect from Oakland P.D., I mean, not searching the entire house for the murder weapon - can you believe this?"  
  
"I’m sitting here, cuffed to a fucking table, Chad,” Jared retorts, even though he knows that Chad’s question was rhetorical. “I don’t know man. Guess I have to see what the hell the cops come up with. They got me for withholding evidence.” Chad frowns at that, and hell Jared’s confused too. They must not think he’s the killer, but at the same time; he finds it hard to believe that they think he’s capable of trying to protect Diane’s killer. Clearly they haven’t profiled him well at all.  
  
“Who do you think called in the tip?” Chad asks after a while. “Jeff?” Jared doesn’t answer. He’s considered that possibility, but he’s not sure. Why would Jeff risk being scrutinised by the police himself just to get rid of Jared; it make no sense. He can only surmise that the real killer is the one who’s throwing a bone.  
  
Jared decides to change the subject. They can only hold him here for forty-eight hours, and he’s fairly confident that they’ll let him go. He can tough it out until then. “How’s Jensen? I kind of screwed up before.”  
  
“Yes, he told me,” Chad says tersely. “I’m beginning to regret introducing the two of you.”  
  
“I get it,” Jared replies. “Which is why I want you both to forget about helping me. Let the police do their job. If it means that they end up throwing me into some dingy jail cell then so be it. It’s not fair on you or Jensen.  
  
“Jared…”  
  
“No, Chad, you and your Dad….you’ve helped me enough,” Jared says softly. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably a huge fucking mess.”  
  
“You’re a mess right now.”  
  
Jared laughs bitterly. “That’s true. Listen; tell Jensen I’m sorry, okay?”  
  
“Tell him yourself,” Chad says glumly.

  


  
Sure enough the police let Jared go after about a day and the first thing he does is call Danneel. He should probably go home, grab a shower and sleep but he doesn’t think he can handle being back at the house and Jensen’s place is a bad idea. So his best bet is asking Danneel to bring over some of his things and he can find someone else to crash with, or check into a motel. Danneel meets him at one of the hole-in-the wall cafes he used to frequent with Diane. She catches him giving the place a cursory glance and looks a little bashful. She doesn't say anything but he can see the silent apology in her eyes; not that he needs one. This place doesn't hold any special significance to him and if he got tripped up by every single thing that reminded him of Diane, he'd be a wreck. Luckily for him, he's fine, possibly a little too fine in the eyes of the police. Apparently people have noticed that he’s not acting any different and that’s usually a sign that someone is ‘hiding something’. It's not that Jared isn't hurting; it's that he knows what to do to shut all of that down. He has to lock away all of those emotions, no matter what his therapist says, or how many times Jensen tries to get him to open up. He doesn't want to face his grief, or face how he feels about Jensen, because it means that all of this is real, it's visceral and too big and Jared isn't ready for that. All he wants to do is maybe find out who his parents are, so he can put all of that bullshit behind him once and for all, and find out who killed Diane, and just live his life free of ‘The Morgans’ and all of the extra stress they bring.  
  
"You said that you knew a lot about Diane," he says after their drinks have arrived. Danneel mumbles something about wanting a glass of wine, but Jared thinks that sticking to coffee is probably a good idea. Plus this place probably doesn’t even serve wine. “I have some questions.”  
  
Danneel narrows her eyes at him. "Don't you want to go home and regroup or something? You must be exhausted. You were locked up all night."  
  
“I have to find somewhere to crash; right after I find somewhere to charge my phone,” Jared tells her. “So that’s not really an option right now.”  
  
Danneel smiles at him knowingly. “Luckily for you, I thought everything through for you and managed to find the key to Diane’s – or well, _your –_ condo, provided that Jeff doesn’t contest the will like he’s been threatening to.” Jared thinks about the conversation he had with Jeff a few days ago. He didn’t mention anything about the will. In fact, Jared hasn’t heard anything about the will until now.  
  
“Is he seriously going to contest it?” he asks. “That requires court and all kinds of other shit, right? I don’t think that I have it in me to suit up and stand there in court debating over money that I didn’t earn.”  
  
“I doubt it’d get that far,” Danneel replies. “And I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything since the meeting. Last I knew they were planning some kind of memorial for this weekend. I think they’re planting a tree or something.” Jared remembers Amy mentioning that, though he isn’t aware that they’ve actually been organising it. He probably won’t get an invite.  
  
“Okay, well, we’ll deal with that later. Right now I need your help.”  
  
“What’s in it for me?” Danneel asks, before Jared can get another word in. “Unlike your friend Chad, my help comes at a price.”  
  
Jared laughs bitterly. “Of course it does. You’re living in the house, rent-free without a care in the world until your two months are up but your help still comes at a price? That’s cute, but it’s not going to fly with me.” She gives him a blank, indifferent look and Jared wonders if he’s spoken out of turn. While he gets that Danneel has issues with what her job with Diane entailed, if doesn’t involve with him. He doesn’t owe her anything. By that definition, she doesn’t owe him anything either, but he’s the one with all the leverage here. Not her.  
  
To his surprise, she grins. “So you  _do_  have some balls after all. There was me thinking that you spent all your time worrying about Jeff not liking you and pining after your boyfriend.”  
  
“What boyfriend? And I don’t pine after  _anyone_.” Jared is a tad flustered to say the least.  
  
“That Jensen guy!” Danneel says, and  _oh_. “You were both giving off major ‘he’s mine’ vibes at the charity function. I seriously thought that you were together. Huh. That explains why he seemed kind of pissed off when I called him to tell him I was meeting you. You’re going to have to fill me in on that whole situation later.”  
  
“You did  _what_?” Jared asks. “Why would you even call him? And how did you get his number?”  
  
Danneel shrugs and takes a sip of her latte. “Diane was kind of…scarily up to date when it came to you. Apparently it was a condition of your probation that just stuck. Not that I believed that. By the way, I’ve got to ask. Did you and Diane ever….” Jared can only stare on in horror as she makes an obscene gesture.  
  
“No, we didn’t, not that it’s any of your business,” Jared replies quickly. “Can we get back to the matter at hand? I need your help uncovering one of Diane’s secrets - the identity of my parents. If you help me, I’ll see about giving you whatever it is that you want.”  
  
“Here’s my counter offer,” Danneel says, handing over a piece of paper. Jared’s too tired to ask what she’s playing at now, so he takes it from her reluctantly, huffing slightly as he unfolds it. It’s a bunch of graphs and numbers that are in a language that Jared doesn’t understand. That language may or may not be commonly known as mathematics. “Projections for Padascape, what you should be spending and earning, et cetera. I want you to hire me as your assistant manager. I was the one who always pulled the books for Diane whenever she wanted to check up on you, so I know the company inside out. And this way you would be able to…go and fix cars, or whatever it is that you’d like to do.” Jared’s not really sure how anything he said required a counter offer, but the graphs and numbers do look legitimate and he does need help.  
  
“Don’t you have a resume that I can look at or something?”  
  
“That  _is_  my resume,” Danneel says cockily. “Now, do we have a deal or not?”  
  
Eventually, they come to an agreement over their cold coffees. She helps Jared out and he’ll see about giving her a job. The only reason why she’s willing to take a ‘maybe’ is because he explains to her that he has to give Milo a look in first, especially because he has a kid and a family. If anyone deserves the assistant manager role, it’s Milo; hell, Jared might even make him the manager and just leave the company entirely. He’ll miss the landscaping side of things, but he can always chip in whenever he feels like it.  
  
“You know, I always thought that you were a self-centred bonehead,” she is what says in her usual unabashed tone. “But…apparently I was wrong.”  
  
Jared’s used to hearing that from people who take one look at him and think that he’s no good, and hell, he kind of agrees with them. He’s not sure why they ever change their minds. He realises that she’s waiting for a response and she shrugs. “Well, I’ve always thought that you’re a bitch and…you are  _not_ proving me wrong.”  
  
Danneel openly grins at that. “I’m not just any bitch – I’m a bitch with  _attitude_.” Jared’s response is engulfed by a huge yawn and she reaches into her purse and throws a few crumpled bills on the table and tells him they need to get going.  
  


  
While being in the condo is weird, Jared’s glad to find it clean and well stocked. If anything it’s almost as if someone’s been staying here regularly. Danneel leaves shortly after she drops him off, with the promise that she will organise a meeting with the children’s home manager if she can. He showers and takes a nap, unable to fall into a deep sleep. He gets up to grab a glass of water and finally switches on his cell. Once there’s life in it, Jared listens to and deletes five messages from Chad and one from Jensen. Chad’s messages are of the ‘you’re being an idiot’ vein, whereas Jensen merely asks Jared to call him back so he knows that he’s okay. There’s also a message from Detective Kane telling him not to leave town. It’s then that the full effect of the previous day finally hits Jared. The ‘conversation’ with Diane, being arrested, the way he’d brushed Jensen off without a second thought. Hell, even the way he’d told Chad he didn’t want him to help out anymore. He still doesn’t; what good is there to come out of finding out Diane’s killer? They’re just going to uncover more secrets and more lies, and what does it matter now that she’s dead? If the police want to pin it on him, they pretty much can at this point. There’s no need for him to drag Jensen and Chad down with him.  
  
He knows that they won’t see it that way though, especially Chad. Chad’s always looked out for Jared, ever since he was that goofy 21-year-old kid torn between accepting help and going his own way. It was Chad who helped him see that the route he was heading down was a bad one. They were close in age and Chad understood some of Jared’s apprehension, but he always told Jared that it was better to have at least one person caring for him than no one. People with no one usually ended up being a statistic in the paper. Of course, Chad said all of that in less eloquent terms, but the point still stood. Despite that, it’s Jensen that makes Jared see that he perhaps has to reconsider. While Jensen hasn’t told him about his medium duties in great detail, Jared’s listened enough to know that the other man feels a duty to help spirits pass on. From what Jared remembers, they usually don’t do that until all the mystery surrounding their death has been absolved. So Jensen’s loyalty might not even lie with Jared anymore, and that leaves him with another conundrum. Diane. He might be royally pissed with her at the moment and feel as though there were a lot of things that she wrongfully kept from him, but he’s the one who’s always stressing how much she did for him. He’s the one who cared so damn much, and anger or no anger, the thought of her  _spirit_  roaming around the Morgan house distresses him. He can’t do that to her, and he can’t brush aside Chad and Jensen as if they don’t matter.


	7. Part Six

## 

  
The next day, Jared takes a cab to the Morgan House and retrieves his bike. According to Danneel, his room’s been taped off and they’ve taken all of his belongings to be tested for DNA samples or something. He’s been wearing the same outfit for three days, and he can’t even order anything online because the police had confiscated his laptop. He’s supposed to be having breakfast with Danneel but she’d bailed at the last minute, so he’s not surprised not to see her in the house when he walks in. Not that he’s looking to see anyone. He’s just here to see if he has a spare change of clothes in the laundry room.  
  
“Jared?” Jared mumbles under his breath as a voice stops him in his tracks when he’s three doors down from his damn destination. He turns around to see Samantha and Jeff staring back at him. Samantha takes a couple of steps forward and hesitates. “How are you holding up?” Jared stares back at her wordlessly, he doesn’t have any beef with Samantha, but they’re not exactly close enough for her to care about him. He can only really recall having one real conversation with her, so seeing the concern in her eyes is weird.  
  
“I’m fine,” he says eventually. “Don’t worry; I’ll be out of your hair soon.” That last part is aimed at Jeff, who hasn’t said a word. That in itself is strange.  
  
“Look…Jared, I know that we haven’t always gotten along but for what it’s worth, I don’t think you did it and…I know that I was pushing for you to be arrested right when it happened, but I was thinking clearly. We know that someone else put that knife in the room.” Jeff’s little speech is a thing of beauty and completely fake. Jared can tell by the forced half-frown on Jeff’s face and the weird half-smile on Samantha’s face; she’s clearly told Jeff what to say, and Jared finds it suspicious. Why would she want Jared to know that she doesn’t think it’s him? And also, how much of a hold on Jeff does she have that he’s acquiescing to her requests?  
  
“That’s nice to know,” he replies, with a forced smile of his own. “I’ve got to get moving, but maybe I’ll see you at Diane’s memorial.” Jeff’s mouth morphs into a tense line and Jared holds back a snort. Samantha seems oblivious to Jeff’s reaction and she smiles at Jared again, this time it’s brighter.  
  
“Yes! Of course. We all know that Diane would have wanted you there. I think it’s on Saturday morning. Right, Jeff?” There is definitely something off about Samantha, Jared decides. For one thing, she usually ignores him. It can’t be a coincidence that she suddenly decides to acknowledge his existence two days after they find the murder weapon in his room.  
  
“That’s right,” Jeff says lowly. “I’ll let Matt and Amy know that you’re coming.” He turns and directs Samantha further down a hallway, not giving Jared a chance to say anything. With an eye roll, Jared goes back to what he was doing.  
  


  
When he gets back to the condo, Jared finally opens the letter to Sterling. He’d forgotten about it  _again_  in the midst of his surreal argument with Danneel and being arrested.  
  
 _Sterling,_  
  
 _Look, I get that we had an agreement, but this wasn’t it. WHY ARE YOU PRETENDING TO BE HER COUSIN? You were supposed to hook up with her, and stick to the damn story that I gave you, not this cousin bullshit. And no, I don’t agree that ‘fake family member’ was the best way to get the money. Are you forgetting that she’s got a lot of money? All it takes is a background check, you asshole._  
  
 _You better be gone in the morning, man. I’ll wire you the cash I said I’d give you, when I get it. She kept a lockbox somewhere with cash in it – that I know for a fact. I intend to find it. Make sure that NOBODY sees this note or you (when you’re on your way out)._  
  
 _Tom_  
  
Jared’s mouth drops open as he processes the mess scrawl on the page. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s got his jacket on and his keys in his hand and he’s gearing up to find Tom and kick him in the ass. The only thing that stops him is a knock on the door. He deflates, anger dimming slightly but not diminishing. Being arrested twice in the space of a couple of days is bad enough, he decides. He can deal with Tom later. He tosses his keys on the table and goes to answer the door, fully expecting it to be Danneel.  
  
It’s Jensen.  
  
“Uh, hi,” he says nervously when Jared stares at him silently, words suddenly trapped under his tongue. What do you say to the person you inadvertently spent half an hour yelling at while you were trying to communicate with your dead aunt-type figure? Sorry, probably, but Jared can’t seem to say anything at all. It’s been two days since he’s seen Jensen and he’s struck by an odd feeling; almost as if he didn’t know how much he wanted to see Jensen until now. He’s  _missed_  him, missed hearing his voice, seeing his face. Jared bites his lip and beckons Jensen in wordlessly, as he thinks about how his therapist is going to have a field day when he tells her about this because he’s finally ready to admit that this thing with Jensen isn’t just going to go away, and there’s a strong possibility that he doesn’t want it to. He still thinks that he’d be terrible boyfriend (partner?) material, but fuck…maybe Jensen’s finally going to be the person he wants to try with. There have been so many people that Jared’s had to drive away, so many people that he’s been afraid of letting down and while those things are true of Jensen there’s one major difference. He’s not ready to let Jensen go.  
  
“I can come back later if now’s a bad time?” Jensen’s uncertain voice cuts into Jared’s thoughts and he shakes his head slightly. He offers Jensen a weak smile and gestures for him to sit down. Jensen obliges, taking a cursory glance around the living room as he settles on the couch. Jared’s still not sure what Diane did with this place, the decorations are sparse and the entire condo has a white, bland, minimalist feel behind it that makes Jared feel like he’s being punished somehow. Not that he’s earned the right to be picky.  
  
“Now is fine,” he says softly as he sits next to Jensen. Their arms brush as Jared creates some distance between them and he feels a familiar tingle. “Sorry that I haven’t called again. I just assumed that you’d get back to me when you were less busy.” He’s actually called a couple of times since he’s been at the condo, but only left one message. Chad’s screening his calls at the moment which is annoying because Jared’s ready to stop being an idiot.”  
  
“Oh, I’ve been kind of…taking a breather,” Jensen says, while rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “After…what happened with Diane and hearing about you being arrested  _again_ , I just needed a time-out. And apparently you decided that you no longer needed mine and Chad’s help.”  
  
Jared nods and raises his hand in mock surrender. “I’m really sorry about all of that. Honestly, I didn’t mean for things to get so heated. Hell, I still get fucking nightmares over the fact that she was pissed with me when she died but….I just lost control for a split second and…well, you know the rest.”  
  
“I understand,” Jensen says, though his voice a little stilted. “It was partly my fault as well. I could have said no. So let’s just forget that it ever happened. It didn’t seem like she told you anything new anyway and all I got from her was that she took a phone call shortly before she died. And Chad checked the records – the number was an unregistered pay as you go phone.”  
  
“How are you holding up?” Jared asks, not really wanting to get into the matter of Diane’s death right now. He’s barely managing to shove down the urge he has to find Tom and have party on his face. “I know that every time you communicate with a spirit, it takes a lot out of you.” Jensen hasn’t exactly told him that, but Jared remembers the day of the wake well, and how pale and withdrawn Jensen had been after that melee. When he casts his mind back, he can remember times when he’s met up with Jensen and he’s seemed unusually quiet and given that being a medium is his  _job_ , Jared can only assume that it’s down to that.  
  
“I didn’t think it was noticeable,” Jensen admits when Jared points this out to him. “I especially wouldn’t expect you to notice.” It’s said with a wry smile, but Jared takes it as a shortcoming nonetheless.  
  
“Maybe I’m a lot more observant than you thought,” he says. “For instance, I know that you rub the back of your neck when you nervous, you leave two days between calling me because you don’t want to seem desperate, you bake banana bread when you’re stressed, deep down you wish you weren’t a medium because you hate the way it affects your life. You have a car but you don’t use it much because you’re afraid that one day, something will happen. You feel like you’d be no good in a relationship because the spirits are always going to be there and you feel as though it’s your duty to help them move on. You’re here right now because even though I treat you like shit, you just can’t stay away.”  
  
“Congratulations, you win this month’s Jensen Ackles psycho-analysis award,” Jensen replies bitterly. “What are you trying to prove?” Jared regrets saying anything when he sees that Jensen’s upset. He just doesn’t like it when people assume that he doesn’t notice things, or care. He does, he just doesn’t feel the need to be in anyone’s face about it.  
  
“I just wanted you to see that I notice things. About you.”  
  
“Oh, good for you,” Jensen snaps. “You toy with me, you reject me and now you suddenly  _know_  me? Fuck that. I only came over here to tell you that Chad and I can’t find Kim.” Jared feels a stab of regret at hearing that they’ve still been working on the investigation even after his bitch fit at the police station.  
  
He takes a deep breath. “That wasn’t what I…look; I didn’t say any of that to mess with your head. I said it because I want you to know that I care. That I know things that I wouldn’t notice about anyone else because I like you, a  _lot_  and once we’re done with this whole situation, I want to see what would happen if we both tried to have an actual, you know…”Jensen doesn’t look as though he believes him and Jared can’t blame him – he can’t even say the word ‘relationship’.  
  
Jensen scoffs. “You can’t even say it and truthfully, I don’t think I’m ready for anything right now. It wouldn’t feel right.”  
  
“Well, I don’t mean  _right now_ , but like, sometime in the future or something,” Jared sighs. “What I’m saying is that when this is done, I’m not going anywhere so…maybe we can agree to put everything aside for now and figure out what we’re going to do.” It’s a pretty shitty way to say that he’s willing to stick around  _for_ Jensen, but it’s the only way Jared knows how. He’s putting himself out there for the first time in his life and while he’s still scared, he’s not regretting it yet. If anything it’s kind of invigorating to just be honest for once and admit that he wants someone.  
  
“Can we just get back to what I came here to say?” Jensen says awkwardly. “Because I don’t know how to respond to that and I don’t want to say anything without having a chance to think about it first.” Jared nods and Jensen starts to tell him about some emails he and Chad found between Kim and Diane. Apparently their relationship had been more strained that they’d thought.  
  
“It was like serious hardcore bad blood between them,” Jensen says. “And the strange thing is that I don’t even think it was about Richard. If it’s not a guy then, what the hell would make them fall out so badly?”  
  
“Probably money,” Jared says. “Diane used to say that friends and money didn’t go hand-in-hand, but she couldn’t help investing in a lot of her friend’s schemes anyway. She liked to help.”  
  
Jensen raises an eyebrow. “Or maybe she liked to make money? It’s not like she had a steady job or anything. She could afford to do whatever she wanted.”  
  
“Actually, she did a lot of charity events and used to work at the hotel years back, so…that’s not really a fair assumption to make.” Jared knows that Jensen doesn’t mean to be malicious, but defending Diane is a reflex for him.  
  
“Anyway, we were wondering if you knew where Kim was…Chad tried to go to her house but there was a foreclosure sign outside and it turns out that she hasn’t lived there for months.” Jared’s mind goes back to the state of the condo when he arrived. He initially thought that it looked as though someone had been staying here. One of the rooms upstairs is locked, so Jared can’t really say for sure that no one has been here. All he knows is that no one has been here since he has. If he was Kim and the condo he was at was suddenly occupied by someone else where would he go?  
  
“I’m not so sure that it matters at this point,” he says. “I found a letter that Tom wrote to this Sterling guy who was pretending to be Diane’s cousin. He was running some kind of scam on her.” He hands the letter to Jensen, who scans it quickly.  
  
“So you think that Tom went to get the money and she somehow caught him?” Jensen asks.  
  
“It’s possible.”  
  
Jensen doesn’t look too convinced as he studies the note once again. “Sounds like he had a pretty specific idea as to where it’d be. Why risk the chance of her catching him in the act.”  
  
Jared blows out a breath, “That’s true, and I guess we don’t know enough about him to be sure that he’s capable of murder. I’ll ask Danneel if she comes over later.”  
  


  
Danneel calls to say that she’s caught up at some kind of auction, and after she bitches about it for twenty minute she hangs up, but not before letting Jared know that she’ll get back to him later. He gets a call from Detective Kane telling him that they’re done with his room, but he’s less forthcoming when Jared asks if his prints are on the murder weapon.  
  
“Did you ever find out why they arrested you for concealing evidence?” Jensen asks.  
  
“Apparently the tip was that I was deliberately hindering the investigation in order to make sure I wasn’t falsely accused.”  
  
“That’s oddly specific,” Jensen replies. “Why would the actual killer not want to see you arrested for the murder itself, assuming that they were the one to leave the tip?”  
  
“Maybe I have something that they want.”  
  
With Danneel being a no-show, Jared decides to just stay in and watch television. Jensen doesn’t show any signs of wanting to leave so he invites him to stay for dinner. Besides the elephant in the room, they do actually get along pretty well so he doesn’t have any problem with spending time hanging out with him. He hopes that it doesn’t lead to other extracurricular activities; they both need to exercise some self-control if they want things to work out.  
  
“So how long do you think Chad’s going to stay mad at you for?”  
  
“He’ll come crawling back to me at some point tomorrow,” Jared jokes. “He’s just trying to teach me a lesson in his own weird way.”  
  
Jensen raises a brow. “Is it working?”  
  
“You tell me,” Jared says.  
  


  
Once they're finished with dinner, they reach an impasse of sorts. The obvious tension in the room makes Jared feel awkward because this is usually the part where they have sex. Jensen coughs awkwardly as the silence grows and Jared starts to freak out. Now that he's decided to give a relationship a try, he has to consider whether he and Jensen work on every level. Emotional, physical, interests everything. Right now they can't even strike up a conversation.  
  
"So, the tox screens came back," Jensen says finally. Jared almost wants to stop him. Talking about Diane's death doesn't seem like it'll be any better than talking, so Jared does what he does best - deflection.  
  
"Can I ask you a question?" Jared is suddenly curious about something.  
  
Jensen gives him a sly grin. "You just did." Jared laughs a little at that. At least Jensen's not going to give him shit for changing the subject.  
  
"It's about your parents," Jared says, "Do they know that you're a medium?" If Jensen is surprised by the question he doesn't show it. He shrugs and looks away.  
  
"No they don't," he says. "It took me a long time to come to terms with it; God only knows what they'd say. Or if they would believe me." Jared can't really talk about people keeping secrets; he's kept his fair share. He can't really see Jensen burying something that big without it affecting him and as he has the thought Jared realises that he does.  
  
He tries to make a point anyway. "You never know, they might believe you. It took me a while to get around it, but now I'm okay with it."  
  
Jensen chuckles. "You're not as okay with it as you think, but you're still doing a lot better than my previous boyfriends did."  
  
Jared ignores the 'b' word because fuck, he can have that freak out later. "Did you tell them or did you make excuses?"  
  
"I made excuses. I'm not proud of it, but you know what else I'm not proud of? This. My ability. Sometimes I hate it. I hate that I can't walk into a room without sensing things, that I'm not normal."  
  
"Why not just tell them? If you love someone, they're supposed to understand."  
  
Jensen looks up at then, and his eyes are bright and clear. "No one's ever stuck around long enough for me to get to that part."  
  
"Well, I'm not going anywhere," Jared says. "And I think you should be proud of who you are. You have a gift and you use it to do good. You could be out there with fake crystals and a fucking crystal ball telling people all kinds of shit for crazy money, but you don't. You're a good guy and anyone who doesn't see it is an idiot." Jensen’s silent for a few moments and he wonders if he’s spoken out of turn. Jensen is clearly uncomfortable and Jared decides not to push the issue again.  
  
“Can we get back to the tox screen now?” Jensen says after a minute. Jared nods and thinks that maybe he’s not the kind of guy someone should have a heart-to-heart with.

  


  
The next day, Chad's speaking to him again. Jared shows up at Jensen's house with Danneel in tow. She has some information about Tom that she thinks might rule him out, but Jared isn't ready to hear it yet. He still wants to find Tom and beat the shit out of him but his rap sheet has taken a big enough hit in the past couple of days. He needs to be smarter about it.  
  
"What the hell are you thinking about?" Danneel asks as they reach the house. "You're doing some kind of weird angry puppy face." Jared grimaces at her description. They get out of the car and he looks across the roof and says, "This is my 'I want to fuck Tom Welling up' face."  
  
Danneel laughs and locks the car. "You might want to practise it in the mirror or something." She pats his arm and walks over to the door while Jared grimaces behind her back.  
  
Jensen's predictably apprehensive about Danneel's presence but Jared tells him that it's cool. He can tell that Jensen isn't fully convinced but he knows that he will leave it be for now. The conversation last night has helped Jared to see why Jensen is so defensive around the so called ‘Morgan House clan’. He doesn't trust easily because he is used to people letting him down, and in his own slightly passive aggressive way, he doesn't want the same thing to happen to Jared. It's kind of sweet, though it would be nice if Jensen could give him some credit. He's been around these people for years, he knows how they operate. In Danneel’s defence, he’s never really made an effort to get to know her, not when Diane was a temperamental kind of boss who sometimes wanted the most inane shit at crazy times of the day.  
  
“Before we start,” Chad says. “I need Jared to promise that he won’t get arrested again before we figure out how the murder weapon got into your room. It didn’t have your prints on it, but obviously the real killer is trying to implicate you somehow.”  
  
Jared injects a healthy amount of sarcasm into his tone and replies with a succinct, “Awesome.” It’s less douchey than a perfectly timed ‘no shit, Sherlock’, which would be his usual response.  
  
“Wait, what exactly does that mean for Jared?” Danneel asks. “How serious do you think the real killer plans on being if they plan on implicating him? Are we talking about him possibly being in the line of fire?” Jared isn’t sure how they’ve gone from someone trying to frame him to someone possibly attempting to hurt him somehow. If that was true, surely the killer would have done it by now – he’s been living with the killer since the murder.  
  
Jensen frowns when Jared puts this to them. “Actually you have been house-hopping between here and the Morgan House.”  
  
“That is true,” Danneel concurs. ”That breakfast was the first time I’ve seen you at breakfast. I genuinely thought that you were trying to state your claim as Diane’s heir apparent.”  
  
“So my crime was that I ate breakfast?” Jared says incredulously. “You don’t think that you’re reaching a little?” It’s not that Jared doubts the possibility of what they’re saying, he knows that he really shouldn't be so apprehensive about the fact that Diane's murderer might kill again, but he can't see why they would want to kill  _him_. What does he have that makes him a target?  
  
"You're technically a millionaire," Chad points out. "Though, if you die, everything Diane left you goes to Richard."  
  
"Well we better warn Richard then!" Jared snaps.  
  
“Slow it down, cranky,” Danneel says calmly. “Richard could be involved indirectly. He’s moved Kim Rhodes into his house and they’re now a real, legit couple.”  
  
“What does that have to do with him being involved?” Jensen asks  
  
Danneel cocks her head to one side. “Diane was paying Kim’s rent, and before you ask she paid a lot of things to and for a lot of people, but Kim was straight up freeloading. So I stopped the payments the day after Diane died and Kim snuck into the condo. I booted her out a few days before I gave Jared the key. Anyway, my point is that she’s almost flat broke and her business is going down the toilet. Hooking up with Richard and getting rid of Jared spells out jackpot for her. Especially when you consider the fact that she hates him.”  
  
Jared jerks to attention at that. “What? I barely even know her!”  
  
Danneel shrugs nonchalantly. “Don’t worry about it. She thinks that if she considers everyone else to be a freeloader then that excludes her from the list. It’s a shame though because I actually kind of liked her at first but I don’t know, girls and friendships can be messy as fuck.” She’s got a point. Jared can vaguely remember the numerous occasions where Diane would bitch about Kim or her other girlfriends. He tended to drift off and nod and hum in the correct places, but each conversation followed a general pattern. He doesn’t remember Diane saying anything to him about Kim in the weeks before she passed, though, he was busy with the company and trying to hide the fact that the numbers weren’t adding up so they barely spoke. Jared wishes that he could go back and change that; maybe Diane would still be here today.  
  
“You said you had information on Tom?” Chad asks, casting a worried glance in Jared’s direction. He’s been doing that a lot. “What with the toxicology report, he’s definitely gone up on the list. As a gardener, he would have first-hand knowledge of his hemlock crap that they found in her blood.” According to the report, there hadn’t been enough in her blood to kill her but the fact that there were traces at all suggested that someone had indeed tried to poison her. Jared was no expert on poisonous plants, but he’s worked in many a garden when landscaping and even knows that there are more common poisonous plants out there that would get the job done a lot quicker than hemlock would. He doubts that Tom would make that lapse of judgement if he wanted Diane dead. Plus, Hemlock slows down never  
  
“What  _is_ hemlock, anyway?” Danneel asks. “It sounds like a Lords Of The Rings character.” Jared’s not really in the mood for her jokes, but Jensen decides to humour her.  
  
“It’s a poisonous plant of some sort,” he says. “I’m not sure what it does but I remember it from reading  _King Lear_  in English Lit class. Cordelia mentions it when she’s talking about her father, who’s missing or something.”  
  
“Thanks for the lesson, Einstein, but what effects does it actually have on a person? We need to know why the killer would use it before…” Chad trails off, and looks down sheepishly, obviously not wanting to finish the sentence because of Jared’s presence.  
  
“It slows down nerve transmission,” he informs them. “It disrupts the central nervous system by blocking the neuromuscular junction, it’s really potent, so it only takes a small amount to cause a respiratory attack. My guess would be that the killer thought that they’d need to overpower her? Hemlock causes muscular paralysis, so she would have been unable to move if there’d been enough in her system.”  
  
“Was there enough?” Chad asks, handing the report over to Jared. He flips through it quickly, barely glancing at the pages.  
  
“The coroner’s report said that she was killed by the stab wound, so I’d say that there wasn’t enough but it could easily mean that she bled out before the poison had time to work.” Jared feels nauseated even as the speaks, the vivid memories of her seeing her body flash in front of his eyes and he hands the report back to Chad instantly.  
  
“So, where does that put Tom on our list of suspects?” Jensen says. “He would know what Hemlock is, but he probably wouldn’t have to use it, meaning that our killer is potentially someone smaller than Diane, maybe, younger with less muscle mass.” It’s an interesting theory, but they don’t really have much to go on.  
  
Danneel reaches into her shoulder bag and pulls out a folder. Chad takes it from her and starts to leaf through it. “I don’t think it was Tom. It turns out that needed the money for his mother. She’s in a home and he can’t afford to pay the bills anymore. The manager of the home said that Tom’s got a week before they’re forced to take action.”  
  
“Meaning that he hasn’t got his hands on any money,” Jensen says. “So that doesn’t rule him out. He could have killed Diane in an attempt to get it and just be…I don’t know, stuck trying to find it?”  
  
“Well, that’s not all that I found out,” Danneel says. “He actually took Diane to see his mother a couple of times.”  
  
“What? Why would he do that?” Chad asks.  
  
“Because he loved her.”

  


  
The morning of the memorial is a difficult one. He wakes up, and looks in the bathroom mirror; his eyes are bloodshot and he feels sick. His skin is pale and clammy and he's forced to climb into the bathtub and sit there, because his legs are shaking. In light of the whole 'he might die' thing, Jared's finally glad to be out of the lock down that Chad and Jensen enforced on him. While he understands it, he's really fucking annoyed. He hasn't been able to go and check on Milo and he's been knee deep in files and sheets on blood patterns that he doesn't understand. As much as he wants to find out who the killer is he doesn't care that there was a medium velocity impact splatter at the scene, or that the killer was right handed. None of that means anything to him. He just...wants Diane back, so they can sit on her couch, eat nachos and bitch about life. She'd let him wallow for one day and then kick his ass the next morning. He misses that, and finding her killer isn't going to bring it back. Yes, there will be a sense of justice and all of that other crap, but those aren't the emotions that matter. What matters is Jared making peace with her and finally accepting that she's not coming back. He's never going to screw up and be able to go to her, he's never going to watch her do something completely stupid and laugh at it. Hell, he's even going to miss watching her get taken in by freeloaders because, while she clearly had some skeletons in her closet, she was a caring person who gave everybody a chance and sometimes Jared isn't sure that he can keep going without her.  
  
There's a creaking sound and a door slams, but Jared doesn't move. He's too caught up in grief, too overcome with the pain he tries too hard to push away. A tear rolls down his cheek, tickling his skin as it travels, and he reaches out to wipe it away. He doesn't cry, he doesn't get emotional, it's not him, but here he is. Somehow he feels even worse than he did at the funeral and he knows it’s because of the 'argument'. Before he can sink any further into the memories of that day, the bathroom door opens and Jensen walks in. He's dressed casually, in a simple long sleeved shirt and jeans. He's not coming to the memorial and...well, Jared isn't sure what he's doing here.  
  
"I came to see how you were holding up; I know that you're not looking forward to it and that we maybe strongly insisted you go." That's an understatement, but Jared isn't naive enough to believe that how he feels now is a direct result of their needling and pushing. He needs to go, just for himself. However, Chad and Jensen have made some interesting points. The memorial will be another huge family gathering, a bit like the family dinner, with most of the guests there. If Jared was the investigative type, it'd be perfect, but he doesn't know what to look for. He can't do this on his own.  
  
"You don't have to go on your own," Jensen says, alerting Jared to the fact that he’s now babbling about all sorts of things out loud. "I'll come with you if you want." Jared is grateful for the offer but he suddenly realises that is not what he meant, and as Jensen looks down at him with his eyes full of concern, he realises something else.  
  
He’s not on his own.

  


  
When Jared arrives at the house, it is decorated with white lilies and smells as if someone doused it in Chanel number whatever, and truth be told, it's a little morbid. It's funny how Diane's family don't ever seem to know what she would want. Amy's standing at the patio doors with a clipboard when Jared arrives on his own (because while he was a wreck a few hours ago, he wasn’t so out of it that he’d subject Jensen to a Morgan family event). The only reason why he knows what time to arrive is because Danneel still lives at the house. It’s typical Morgan bullshit and Jared can't bring himself to care anymore. Amy's laughing with Mark Sheppard as Jared approaches. No doubt Jeff has agreed to provide more fodder for his column in the LA Times. Mark casts him a curious glance as he takes a small ticket from Amy and heads out towards the garden.  
  
“Really, Amy, you’re handing out tickets?” Jared says when she looks up at him. “This is a memorial, not Coachella.” Out of the corner of his eye, he spies Matt and Jeff greeting guests who look as plastic and shiny as they do. Sadly, a lot of these people were in Diane’s circle, so he can’t even pretend that she wouldn’t want them here.  
  
“Tell it to someone who cares,” Amy retorts. “You’re lucky that Samantha insisted that you be here. I suppose it’ll be good for Mark, though, when he learns about how you’ve been arrested twice while your business slowly fades away into the land of failure.”  
  
Jared smiles at her darkly. “I wonder what the rest of your clients would say when they find out that you can’t even detect theft when it’s happening right under your nose, regardless of whether you deliberately didn’t tell me.”  
  
Amy smiles back at him. “That’s the best thing about working for your husband’s family, they can’t really fire you.”  
  
“Maybe not, but I can.” Jared says through gritted teeth. “If I see you at the office again, I’ll tell Matt what I know.” The words fly out of Jared’s mouth before he can stop them, and he freezes, sure that she’s about to call his bluff. Instead, she flinches and concern flashes across her face; it’s the first crack in her stoicism and Jared knows that he’s hit on something.  
  
She glances around covertly and leans closer and speaks softly. “Take your ticket and get out of my face.” She shoves the paper into his hand and plasters a fake smile on her face and turns to the next guest. Jared glances down at the ticket. It says ‘200’ on it. He steps out on to the paved patio and looks at the sprawling garden. There are roughly two hundred chairs placed in two columns of ten rows consisting of ten seats. He scoffs as he realises that he’s right at the back.  
  
“Is there a problem, Mr Padalecki?” Rosenbaum the head of security is by his side almost immediately. The wary expression on his face gives Jared an idea.  
  
“You know, in light of my recent…legal issues, I find it kind of odd that you and your security would leave me languishing at the back. But I suppose that it gives me the chance to smoke a couple of cigarettes. Events like this tend to make me a little…stressed.” Rosenbaum stares at him for a few seconds before he turns away and speaks into his radio. After a moment, he turns back around and beckons for Jared to follow him.  
  
Jared makes sure to wave at Amy as Rosenbaum directs him to the front row.  
  


  
The memorial is the typical stuffy, pretentious affair that Jared expected. People read out weird poems; they plant a tree; socialites do their best to pretend that they’re not all dying to get to the point where the champagne is passed out. Jared can’t even look forward to that part. In light of the toxicology report, Jensen and Chad have instilled a ‘no eating and no drinking’ policy on him. It’s obvious that nothing’s going to happen here, not when the Morgan’s reputation is at stake. With that thought in mind, Jared stands right in the middle of Jeff’s speech. Samantha, who is standing behind him, leans into whisper something in his ear. Jeff doesn’t look too happy but before Jared knows what’s happening, Jeff is saying,  
  
“Perhaps Jared would like to say a few words. He was a close… _friend_  of Diane’s.” Silence hits the area as all eyes focus on Jared. Jeff calling him a ‘friend’ has probably piqued their interest. It’s no secret that they all thought he and Diane were involved and now that he knows about Tom, it’s obvious that she refused to deny it for a reason. He was an easy cover story, and he’s okay with that. It’s not like he gives a shit what these people think about him. Except right here, and right now, the scrutiny makes him feel uncomfortable in his own skin. He doesn’t know what to say, or how to express himself in a way that does Diane justice.  
  
“I was actually just on my way out,” Jared says as he loosens his tie. “I’m sure you’ve covered everything in between the part about the Morgan Hotels and the legacy your parents left for you. I’m sure Mark Sheppard’s column will earn you a few more reservations than usual.” Matt bristles from his seat, which is unfortunately right next to Jared’s vacated chair. Amy mumbles something under her breath but Jared ignores her.  
  
It’s Richard who attempts to play peacemaker. “Let’s not fight, guys. Not today, alright? Diane wouldn’t want that.” A door slams and a gust of wind blows across the seated guests as a figure emerges on the stage. Jared frowns when he sees that it’s Kim Rhodes, and she looks a little worse for wear. He turns back to face Richard whose face is strangely blank when you consider that his girlfriend has just crashed his ex-wife’s memorial.  
  
“That’s exactly what she would want, isn’t it Rich?” she says, half slurring her words. Jared sits back down and barely refrains from concealing his eyes with his hand. He glimpses a few people holding up cell phones and knows that this will be all over the gossip blogs before the hour is out. In a way, Kim is right. Diane’s favourite thing was being the centre of attention and attracting people to her drama-filled life. He contemplates the surroundings, his eyes travelling up the length of the house; he wonders if she’s here, watching all of them. He wonders what she’d think. Would she truly love it or did no one truly know who she was deep down inside?  
  
“Diane was my best friend; she could be a complete bitch, but she was always there when I needed her, even when she found out that I was having sex with her ex-husband.” There’s a flurry of gasps as everyone turns to face Richard who seems to deflate suddenly. Matt cracks his knuckles and looks down at his shoes while Amy just looks bored and disinterested but there’s a small smile on her face. Jared files that small facet away for later. Jeff and Samantha stand behind Kim, looking aghast as Kim shucks off her shoes and sits under the small chapel they’d constructed for the service.  
  
“What she didn’t tell me was that she was still sleeping with him,” Kim says, eliciting another series of gasps. “Right up until the day she died. However, what he doesn’t know is that she was banging the gardener at the same time. And what he doesn’t know is that she had a---“  
  
Jared stands up again and addresses Kim directly. He knows exactly what she’s about to reveal and he can’t let her do that, not when he can stop her.  
  
“We get that you want to have your little moment here, but don’t say something that you might regret. How about you go back to ‘she was always there when I needed her’? Matt gets up and starts to leave and Amy follows him. Jared thinks he hears her mumble something about calling the police but he can’t be sure. He turns back to Kim and gives her a questioning look. After a few seconds she nods back at him.  
  
“Despite all our many differences, she was a good friend to anyone and when she cared about her family and friends with a fierceness that I’ve never seen in anyone before. I’m going to miss her.” Kim gets up and stumbles off the stage and right into Rosenbaum, who is waiting to escort her away from the service. Jared decides that he’s also had enough and he moves to follow them, though not before he gives Richard a calculated glare. He’s starting to see why Diane was so jittery the day she died. All the lies and drama clearly caught up to her. He shakes his head sadly as he walks across the neatly trimmed grass, ignoring the stares from the guests. A loud noise sounds just as he reaches the patio doors and suddenly the glass is cracked and there’s a bullet shaped hole right in the middle of it. There’s another sharp, popping noise and Jared ducks and half stumbles half falls into the house.  
  
Slowly he realises that Chad and Jensen’s suspicions are a hundred percent correct – someone’s trying to kill him.  
  


  
Detective Kane is the first on the scene, and as he takes down Jared's version of events it looks like the detective is doing his best to work out how to blame Jared for shooting at himself.  
  
"Did you notice anything else?" Kane asks, his tone practically dripping with irritation.  
  
Jared glares at him. "I've told you everything twice. How about you back off? Or do you want to arrest me for shooting at myself?"  
  
"Actually, I don't think the second bullet was for you," a voice says from behind them. Jared turns and sees a blonde woman standing there; he recognises her from the parties and gatherings he used to accompany Diane to. Her name is Krista, or Kirsten or something.  
  
"And you are?" Kane asks with a raised eyebrow. She steps forward and sticks out her hand.  
  
“Detective Bell, though you can call me Kristen. I’m your new partner on the Diane Morgan case.” That raises Kane’s hackles and he ignores her hand.  
  
“I wasn’t aware that I was being reassigned a new partner,” he says slowly. Kristen lets her hand fall and she smiles at Kane.  
  
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you fail to solve a case in an appropriate length of time,” she replies. “My family happens to be good friends of the Morgans and we all agreed that someone needed to keep a closer eye on the investigation. Did you know that some rogue investigator has been snooping around in the evidence locker and the LAPD’s online databases?” That last part is clearly directed at Jared and he looks at the ground silently. Even if Chad untouchable because of his father is, he’s not going to take any chances and say anything.  
  
“Can I go now?” he asks before Kane can respond; he’s not the least bit interested in their pissing contest. Kane nods silently and Jared muffles his sigh of relief and walks away, loosening his tie as he goes past Amy and Matt.  
  
He’s almost by the main gates when he hears loud footsteps behind him. He looks back and sees that it is Detective Kane jogging towards him. Jared stops and waits for him to catch up.  
  
“I thought you said I could go,” he says when Kane is close enough to hear him speak. “Or did your new partner instruct you to summon me back.”  
  
“Look, when I got this case, I knew that it would be a tough one to crack,” Kane says. “You uptight rich people are only willing to talk when the topic is somebody else and while it might seem like it’s an open and shut case it isn’t. I haven’t gotten one single suspect, or viable motive, but your little friend, Murray  _has_  and I have the evidence to prove that he’s been paying off cops to provide him access to police evidence.” Jared can sense some sort of threat or demand coming up and he has to way up the pros and cons of knocking out Kane and returning back to the condo. Pros: He can finally get something to eat, see Jensen and take a long, long nap. The cons are a lot more extensive than that so Jared realises that he has no choice but to hear Kane out.  
  
“What do you want?” he asks. “Not that I owe you anything considering how you’ve treated me during this entire investigation.”  
  
Kane looks apologetic for the first time since Jared’s set eyes on him. “I had no choice. Your family have been pushing me to look into you and when I couldn’t find anything concrete, we got that anonymous tip. I had no choice but to arrest you. I got my ass handed to me for not arresting you for murder by the way.”  
  
“Why didn’t you?” Jared enquires. “You found the murder weapon in my room, it’s not like it would have been a stretch.”  
  
Kane shakes his head and laughs softly. “That first night I was at the house, you were pissed off and angry. You didn’t want to answer my questions. You and Jeffrey were the ones who displayed real emotion. Everyone else seemed too polished, too smooth. I never thought that you killed her but money talks and I have to do what I’m told.” To say that Jared is surprised would be an understatement, but he is. He isn’t sure that he’s ready to believe Kane completely.  
  
“What do you want?” he asks.  
  
“To help you and your friend with the investigation,” Kane says. “Off the books, whatever. I can get you access to whatever you need on the condition that you let me see what you’ve got and let me make the final arrest should you discover who the killer is.”  
  
Jared scoffs. “Why would we want to let you do that?”  
  
“Because you don’t care about any of that, you just want justice and if you want the murderer to actually serve time for what they did, you’re going to need to have someone on the right side of the law. I can make certain things go away and make sure that justice is served. It’s a win-win situation for all of us.”  
  
Jared exhales deeply as he considers Kane’s offer. The man does have a good point, but he isn’t sure how Jensen and Chad are going to take it.

  


  
After Jared manages to shake Chris (apparently they’re on a first name basis now) off, he takes a cab to the condo. His phone has been buzzing constantly in his pocket but Jared doesn’t have the energy to check it. It turns out that being shot at isn’t quite as cool as it looks in the movies. The adrenaline that pumped through Jared’s veins is gone and in its place is a cold feeling of loss and regret. Kim is definitely going to be hearing from him when she’s sober enough to listen  _and_ after Jared has his nap.  
  
However, when he walks into the house and sees the expressions on Jensen, Danneel and Chad’s faces, he realises that won’t be a while.  
  
“’ _Shots fired at Diane Morgan’s memorial,’_ ” Danneel reads out something from her phone. “And you couldn’t be bothered to pick up one of our calls.” She looks angry, whereas Chad just looks a little shell-shocked. Jensen gives him a look that says ‘ _are you okay?_ ’ and Jared manages a weak smile in return as he contemplates what he’s going to say to the firing squad. He winces at his own ironic choice of words.  
  
“I got caught up answering the police’s questions,” he explains. “I don’t think they would have taken too kindly to waiting as I made a phone call.”  
  
“We warned you that this would happen,” Chad says. “We fucking warned you!”  
  
Jared finally loses his temper, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically, “You were the one who pushed for me to go!” It’s not true, not really, even if this morning it felt like that, like he had to go just to give them some nugget of information and prove that he’s keeping it together. And yes, Chad is doing this for him but damn it, Jared has the right to get angry.  
  
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Chad shouts, rising to face Jared head on. “If you didn’t want to you could have said. You can pin whatever the hell you want on me but not that because you know what? I wouldn’t be caught dead at a memorial for any of the Morgans. You know, I didn’t see it until now, but she used you. She was selfish and a liar, she let her family run rings around you for years just to prove some kind of point. She manipulated you emotionally.”  
  
Jared bristles as his anger reaches boiling point. He does his best to steel himself because he’s not about to fuck up his friendship with Chad, but it doesn’t mean that he’s going to stand here and listen to Chad say things that aren’t true.  
  
“Oh, really, it’s not true?” Chad scoffs when Jared puts this to him. “Who is the one person who knew who your parents are? Who refused to tell you? Who kept you around and pushed you to mix with pretentious assholes who don’t think you’re worth a damn? It was all her, Jared and I get it, you loved her and in some fucked up way, she maybe loved you too but that doesn’t mean that she was some saint. Despite all of that, I’ve been working my ass off on his stupid case and I hate it. I hate that it’s making me face all of the bullshit I quit my dad’s firm over. Wealthy people thinking they can vanquish their lies with money, acting all holier than thou when really, they’re as dirty as sin. I did all of that because we’re friends and I love you and…” Chad deflates visibly as he runs out of steam and seems to realise what he’s said. He starts to say more but Jared cuts him off.  
  
“Get out.” Guilt appears on Chad’s face and he puts his hands up apologetically. “I don’t want to hear anything else that you have to say, Chad, just leave before I do something that I regret.”  
  
“Jared…” Jensen trails off as he turns to look at Danneel, who shrugs and jumps up from the couch. She probably agrees with everything that Chad said.  
  
“No, I’ve heard what he has to say and he can leave,” Jared says quietly, as his own anger dissipates. “In fact all of you can do whatever you want. I’m going to bed.” He turns and heads toward the stairs, not looking back as he ascends.


	8. Part Seven

  


## 

After Jared heads up the stairs, Jensen turns to Danneel and Chad who are both in different stages of distress. In hindsight, waiting around to say ‘I told you so’ was a bad idea, something that he remembers telling Chad and Danneel several times. Jensen is confident that they’ll be able to smooth things out later but right now he’s forced between choosing whether to comfort Jared or to leave with Chad. Given all that Chad has done for him, Jensen hates that the answer is Jared.  
  
“That went well,” Danneel says. “We haven’t even told him about the phone call yet.” Jensen gives her an incredulous look.  
  
“I think that you two should leave and I’ll smooth things out with...” Chad’s grabbing his jacket and out of the door before Jensen can even finish speaking. Danneel sighs and grabs her own jacket.  
  
“I’ll go see that he’s okay,” she says before she leaves. That leaves Jensen standing there in the living room on his own, steeling himself for another rejection courtesy of Jared. After a few minutes he forgets about his inner battle and heads upstairs. Jared’s sitting on the floor by his bed and Jensen hovers in the doorway as he tries to gauge his mood. He doesn’t look angry but he’s not exactly smiling either. Jensen steps and joins Jared on the floor.  
  
“I’m sorry about that,” he says. Jared turns to look at him, his eyes are duller than usual and a part of Jensen breaks a little. In all the time that Jared’s been mourning, he’s never looked quite so…defeated and worn down. Jensen wishes that he could find some way to make Jared forget, if only for a little while  _and_ in a way that doesn’t include screwing up their tumultuous relationship. Not that sex is the answer, because it totally isn’t and Jensen knows that.  
  
“Wasn’t your fault,” Jared says, “It wasn’t anybody’s, and…Chad was right about everything. He was right about Diane. And I know that you agree so don’t try to tell me what you think I want to hear.” Jensen’s mouth snaps shut and he chuckles a little.  
  
“I wouldn’t do that.”  
  
Jared smiles at him a little and Jensen refrains from yelling “A-ha!” Now he just needs to find a way to distract Jared from everything.

  


  
They return back to the house three hours later, laughing as they stumble through the doorway. They’re not drunk, just…a little bruised from their excursion at roller skating rink.  
  
“We are never doing that again,” Jared says. “Someone my height should not be on roller skates.” Judging by the number of times that Jared had fallen on his ass, Jensen cannot disagree. Jensen grins as he shrugs his jacket off and joins Jared the couch. “You had fun though right? You didn’t bruise your ego too much?” Jared rolls his eyes at the comment, but Jensen smirks all the same. It’s not every day that someone who’s never skated before tells you that they’re quote ‘good at everything they put their mind to, except for running a company that was probably doomed from the start’.  
  
“I had a great time,” Jared answers eventually. “It’s been a long time since I’ve let myself go like that.” He sounds surprised and Jensen doesn’t know whether to be pleased or sad for him.  
  
“What do you usually do when you need to just let go of everything for a while?”  
  
Jared cocks his head to the side as he considers his response. “Uh…I just go on rides on my bike or I…” he trails off, as his eyes widen with realisation. “Or I call you.” There’s a moment where time just stops and Jensen wonders if his ‘sex is not a good way to deal with highly, emotional situations’ was a bust because all he wants to do right now is kiss Jared, and that only ever leads to one thing.  
  
“I should go,” he whispers. “Before we do something we regret.” He can see the same conflictions in Jared eyes and there’s something comforting in the fact that he’s enduring the same turmoil.  
  
“You should,” Jared agrees as he inches closer, his actions belying his words. “But I don’t want you to.” Jensen’s not sure who moves first but in seconds they’re kissing. Jared fists Jensen’s shirt and pulls him in. Jensen pushes him back and yanks his shirt off, he kisses Jared a couple more times before he stops and rids Jared of his shirt also. They latch back onto each other, their hands roaming on the other’s skin as they press lower and harder.  
  
“We should go upstairs,” Jared murmurs in between a series of short kisses, before turning his attention to sucking on Jensen’s neck. Jensen agrees silently and they somehow make it up without any trouble and soon he’s lying on his back, staring up at Jared. He wants to just lie back and enjoy it but after everything Jared said to him about  _staying_  and wanting him, he needs to know that this isn’t just a fluke, that he isn’t being used as some sort of stress relief. He needs to know that this means something.  
  
"What's wrong?" Jared asks, hovering above Jensen, with concern painting his face. "Do you want to stop?"  
  
"Does this mean anything or are just...letting go?" Jensen hates the neediness in his own voice, the fact that he can't enjoy this without having to ask.  
  
"I don't know the right answer to that," Jared says, flopping down onto the space next to Jensen, "but I know that I'm in love with you." Jensen should probably take his time in reacting to that, but he can't. His turns and kisses Jared  _hard_  as he fumbles with his zipper. Jared is eager and responsive and he pulls back and shucks his jeans off, discarding them on floor before turning his attention back to Jensen. They share a full body kiss, grinding down onto each other as they nip at each other’s mouths furiously. After checking with him first, Jared flips him over and Jensen moans as Jared slides his cock in the crease of his ass. The friction burns Jensen deep to the core and he wants more. He curses softly as Jared's hips twist and swivel and he suddenly doesn't want to wait anymore. He pushes Jared back and turns back over, his eyes stray down to Jared's crotch as his own cock twitches at the thought of it being inside him.  
  
"I want you to fuck me," he says, and he can hear the rawness in his own voice. " _Please._ " Jared doesn't wait to be told twice and soon he's slipping slick fingers into Jensen's hole, scissoring them open in between fondling his balls. Eventually Jared seems to be satisfied because he pulls back and Jensen hears the crinkle of the condom packet. Within a few seconds, Jared's ready and lining his dick up at Jensen's entrance. He looks deep into Jensen's eyes and asks a silent question. Jensen nods and Jared pushes in slowly. It hurts a little; the same way it always does, but Jensen doesn't care. The pain is worth it if he gets to have Jared. Once they've established a rhythm, Jared fucks him hard, each thrust hitting his prostate, leaving him crying out in ecstasy before he finally comes, white spurts flying onto Jared's chest. Jared doesn't last much longer and Jensen struggles to open his eyes, wanting nothing more than to see Jared shudder and lose all the barriers that he puts up every day. They fall onto the sweat soaked sheets once the aftershocks have subsided, with Jensen's head pillowed on Jared's chest and their bare legs tangled together. In all the times that they've been together, this is the closest they've ended up afterward. That sends a thrill through Jensen's heart as he starts to hope that the threat of losing Jared is less now, that maybe they actually have a future together. They should clean up but Jensen's too busy enjoying the state of tranquillity his body is in, and his mind only focused on thing.  
  
"Hey, Jared? I love you too." Jared doesn’t respond but he takes Jensen’s hand in his own and squeezes it gently.

  


  
The next morning, Jared's phone goes off when he's in the shower and in his half-lucidity he answers it after mistaking it for its own.  
  
"Hi, it's Megalyn, the Morgan lawyer. Is Jared there?"  
  
"He's busy right now," Jensen says, suddenly wide awake. "I can take a message if you want?"  
  
"Just tell him to call me back." There's a click and the dialling tone sounds. He cuts off the call and leans back against the pillows. He knows first-hand that Jared can sometimes take a while in the shower, so he copies Megalyn’s number onto his phone and goes downstairs to make a call of his own. However, he’s distracted when he comes face to face with Danneel. She’s sitting by the breakfast bar, drinking what looks like a smoothie. She slurps it loudly as she sees Jensen approaching her.  
  
“One of these days you and Jared are going to sit down and explain your relationship to me, so I know what to say and what not to say,” she says, before draining the glass. “Anyway, I see that you cheered him up somehow. We figured out who Diane called on the day she died.” Jensen rubs a hand over his eyes and hops onto one of the stools.  
  
He stares down at his hands morosely. “Maybe we should give the case a rest for a few days.”  
  
“Why?” she asks. “We’re just starting to narrow it down, we’ve got momentum.” Jensen gets it, she’s just here to prove that she’s worthy of the job at Padascape, and to show Jared that she’s not a liability but Jensen’s not sure that he would want her working for  _him_.  
  
“Jared was shot at yesterday,” Jensen says slowly. “You do remember that right? He’s not exactly in the right mind frame right now.” He knows that he shouldn’t be speaking for Jared, but he can’t help it. It’s  _Jared_ ; he’s got to say something.  
  
Danneel smiles at him, like he hasn’t just reminded her that someone tried to  _kill_  Jared yesterday. “It’s cute that you’re worried but this is Jared we’re talking about. The guy who was arrested twice in the space of a few days, and was more concerned with finding out who his parents are? The guy who lived in a house full of people he can’t stand just because of Diane. Do you really think that he going to let some sloppy gunman stop him from living his life and finding the son of a bitch who murdered his best friend?  
  
Jensen frowns. While he didn’t exactly say anything yesterday when Chad flipped out and told Jared everything he’d been holding back, he does agree that Diane and Jared’s relationship probably wasn’t a healthy one. Still, that doesn’t mean that she’s not worth trying to get justice for and in fact, as a medium, a part of Jensen feels compelled to help her anyway. It’s his job. He can’t allow his feelings for Jared compromise his actions and morals. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone.  
  
“Okay, I guess that you’re right,” he says grudgingly.  
  
“Right about what?” Jared’s making his way downstairs, dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, his hair still damp from the shower. He walks over to the kitchen area of the condo, and starts rummages around in the cupboard, seemingly oblivious to the conversation he’s just interrupted. “I think I left my jacket at the house.”  
  
Danneel snorts. “Oh, like you don’t have identical leather jackets to go with the collection.”  
  
“Yeah, but it’s my favourite,” Jared sticks his head out to respond, “And you know that you love them all.” He closes the cupboard and mutters something about their not being anything decent to eat and goes upstairs to grab his bike keys.  
  
“Wait, I thought you guys were heading over to your house?” Danneel says. “I only came over here to talk to Jared about his…about something.” He chooses not to dwell on whatever it is she was originally going to say. His only focus is on solving this case as soon as possible so Diane’s spirit can be put to rest.  
  
“No, he wants to check on the business first,” Jensen says has he hops off the stool. “And I need to go and grab a shower. We can head to Chad’s together if you want to stick around; I have an idea on how we can get more information about Diane.”

  


  
Megalyn looks confused when she enters the coffee shop to see Jensen sitting with Danneel and Chad. She’s a little out of place, all designer clothes and handbag, as opposed to the jeans and denim cut-offs most of the college kids are sporting. Jensen tries not to give to Chad and Danneel; both the stink-eye, but only so he doesn’t risk throwing Megalyn off. He’s already invited her here over false pretences but they insisted on coming along because they don’t think that Jensen has what it takes to get people to spill information. She doesn’t make a scene at first, as she takes a seat, her brown curls swaying slightly.  
  
“What is  _this_?” she asks, as she signals for the waitress to come over. “I thought you said that Jared was going to be here. I have important documents for him to sign that I need to file today.”  
  
“As his lawyer, you have to run it by me first,” Chad says coldly. “Let me guess. Some kind of non-disclosure agreement about what happened yesterday?” Megalyn isn’t ruffled, turning away from them to give her order to the waitress.  
  
“I can’t disclose that,” she says eventually. “And once I’m done with my drink, I’m going to walk out of here.”  
  
Danneel holds up her iPhone. “By the time you’re done, Jared’s version of events will be all over the internet if you don’t tell us what we want to know.” Jensen mouths ‘stop’ at her as Megalyn laughs in response.  
  
“Do whatever you want,” she replies. “As of tomorrow, I’m a free agent.” Danneel’s reply is drowned out by Chad’s cell phone going off, and there’s a flurry of activity as Megalyn’s drink arrives and Chad leaves the table.  
  
“Look, I was planning on meeting you by myself, but I have some questions that need to be answered,” Jensen says quickly before Danneel can interfere. “Specifically about the will, it was amended the day before she died and I want to know why.” Megalyn chuckles dryly and sips at her latte. Danneel gives him a look that says ‘ _what are you doing?’_  but he ignores her. This is his job, and no matter what deal she was with Jared, he’s not about to let her run the show.  
  
“What’s in it for me?” Megalyn asks as she stirs her coffee with what Jensen think is an unnecessary amount of vigour. If it’s supposed to be intimidating, she’s going to have to try harder. Danneel finally excuses herself to go and see what Chad is up to.  
  
“Your reputation remaining intact,” Jensen says with a smile. “I happen to be friends with a journalist in the area and he happened to mention to me that someone close to the Morgans was planning on writing an expose. And that someone is you.” She freezes and it’s almost as if the noise in the coffee shop falls away. He can see in her eyes that he’s got her exactly where he needs to be; desperate for her secret to remain intact.  
  
“Fine, you win,” she concedes. “But not because you’re threatening me. I actually have a conscience, unlike the Morgans. Sometimes I think that taking the job was the worst thing I’ve ever done, but my reasons were understandable enough. Diane was active in the civil rights scene, helping disadvantaged black children and it enamoured me to her. We became friends and somehow she sucked me into the Morgan vortex. She was convinced that having her entire workforce in the house created some kind of family unit, but it was beyond that. It was weird.”  
  
“Weird how?” Jensen asks.  
  
“It was just weird,” she says and Jensen knows that she won’t elaborate any more than that. “Anyway, to answer your question, she wanted me to cut Matt out of her will. He wasn’t supposed to get anything but I left everything but the money just to be spiteful. By the time I realised how stupid I was being, she was dead.” It says a lot that Jensen is not surprised about any of this. Given all that he’s learnt in the past few weeks, Diane’s life was just one roller coaster after another.  
  
“So...do you think that Matt killed her?” he says. “Is there any way he could have found out?”  
  
Megalyn stares down at the table. “I lost track of the papers for a few hours. They were in her office one minute and gone the next. Anyone could have seen it. What I will say is that I think one of the  _Fantastic Four_  killed her off.”  
  
Jensen frowns. “The Fantastic Four?”  
  
“Oh, that’s what I call Jeff, Matt, Amy and Samantha, except they use their powers to do evil.” Megalyn’s lip curls up in distaste and Jensen is momentarily taken aback at the sheer bitterness in her voice.  
  
“Do you know why she wanted to leave him out?” he asks finally. Danneel and Chad aren’t back yet, and he knows that she’ll clam up as soon as they return, so he just needs to know this one thing.  
  
She shrugs. “I didn’t ask, but she said something about it being for his own good, but I don’t know. I guess we’ll never know unless there’s some way to contact the dead.” Jensen snorts to himself. In a sense, this conversation could be considered pointless, but if there’s one thing that Jensen knows it’s that even dead people like to keep their secrets hidden.

  


  
Jensen gets back home twenty minutes after his meeting with Megalyn ends. Chad and Danneel weren’t outside when he left, so he assumed that they were at his place. He’s not expecting to see them sitting along with Detective Kane and Jared. He immediately wonders if Jared’s in trouble again.  
  
“Oh good, you’re here,” Chad says. “You almost missed out on the fun. Kane here wants to blackmail us into helping him out with the case.” Jensen sighs. He knew that something like this would happen when Chad kept paying off those low-level cops at the LAPD. It’s one thing when it’s for a 50-year old cold case, but a high-profile murder case? It was inevitable that was going to get busted.  
  
“Uh, well, guess he’s officially on board then.” Chad is not too pleased with his reaction.  
  
“Seriously?” he says incredulously. “Am I the only one who thinks that this is insane?” Jensen shares a look with Jared and he can tell that Chad’s been ranting and raving for some time  
  
“No you’re not,” he says. “But right now we don’t care what you think, so sit down and shut up.” Jensen’s not really mad with Chad; he just knows that his partner will be difficult for the sake of it. “In case it’s skipped your mind, Jared was  _shot at_  yesterday. We don’t have time to listen to your shit.”  
  
Kane looks between Jared and Jensen. “Wait, are you two…” he trails off, waving a hand to encompass the rest of his question.  
  
“It’s a long story,” Danneel says, saving them both from having to stammer their way through awkward answers. Or well, saving Jensen at least. He has no idea what they are; they haven’t even been able to discuss what happened last night yet, and he knows that they won’t until all of this is over.  
  
“Look guys. I’m not here to cause trouble, just to solve the case without the Morgans trying to conceal anything or get me fired,” Kane says. “I know that I’ve not exactly been welcoming but—“  
  
“Save the speech, asshole, we get it,” Chad says. “Now is there something you know that we don’t?”  
  


  
The only thing new that “Call me Chris” has to tell them is that Diane received a call from Samantha before she died, and that they found a black bow in the room that they were unable to identify. Danneel grumbles about how she’d technically figured that out already but she drops it after a few minutes.  
  
“What about the person who called in the anonymous tip?” Chad asks as he paces across Jensen’s living room.  
  
“Male. Used a payphone but there’s no security footage of the call. Camera was facing the other way.”  
  
“Did you find anything on Tom Welling?” Danneel says. “We figured out that he wanted money from Diane, to the point where he paid off some guy to pretend to be her biological cousin.”  
  
“He’s left-handed, so he’s definitely not your killer,” Chris says, glancing at his watch briefly. “But uh, he served six months for theft a while back, so that Sterling guy could be one of his old buddies.”  
  
“If we go back to our original list of suspects, it’s not Tom, Richard is out of the picture, Kim was probably too drunk on the night to make it up the stairs in one piece, let alone murder someone, I don’t think Jeff did it and after the memorial I can’t be sure about Matt. There’s something weird going on there. And Diane was acting pretty weird the day she…anyway, that’s what we have so far.” Jared does his best to summarise everything up for everybody, and something clicks in Jensen’s mind.  
  
“The bow!” he exclaims. “Could it have come from a hat? Because Samantha was wearing one that night. If I recall the security footage correctly and given that we know that she called her, the voicemail – something was going on there.”  
  
“There’s more,” Chris admits. “I wasn’t going to say anything but Diane met up with Samantha several times at a restaurant in New York in January of last year. At that point, Samantha wasn’t engaged in a relationship with Jeffrey Morgan.” There’s a moment where they all turn to look at Jared who blinks owlishly in return.  
  
He shakes his head in confusion. “I have  _no_  idea why she met up with Samantha. As far as I’m aware they don’t like each other. What reason could they possibly have to be meeting up?”  
  
Jensen doesn’t know the answer to that question, but he knows what he has to do. Potential angry spirit or not, he’s going to have to ask Diane some tough questions.  
  
Later that night, after everyone has gone home, Jensen sets about tidying his place up. There’s a restless feeling inside his stomach as he runs the vacuum cleaner over the floors. He’s tired of his own house, he realises. Of being here all the time, of working here, and he longs to be back in the condo, in bed, with his head lying on Jared’s chest as warmth seeps through him. He laughs to himself as he bends to pick up a random object from the floor. He and Jared have a long way to go before they reach a point where Jensen can do any of what he desires. Life isn’t some romantic comedy where the instant happy ending comes after  _I love you_. His attention is soon captured by what he’s holding in his hands. It’s a USB stick, probably one of Diane’s from the giant bag of stuff that Danneel had brought over. They’d looked through it all, but most of the documents there were of no use. There was nothing tying her to Samantha, but maybe there was something on the USB. Jensen slips into his pocket and makes a mental note to check it out later.

  


  
When Jared hears that Aldis (the family doctor) and his family are moving out, he insists on going back to the Morgan House to say goodbye to them and pick up the rest of this belongings, now that his room isn’t sealed off anymore (Danneel checked when she moved out the day before). Jensen decides to go with him because he doesn’t trust that someone won’t try to hurt Jared again, and because he’s put off going back to see Diane long enough. Spirits get restless and irate when left alone, especially the newer ones. Leaving Diane’s spirit to fester in the house doesn’t sit right with him. Plus he wants to ask her about Samantha, to see if they can’t finally figure out if she’s the one. Jared’s mentioned that Samantha personally invited him to the memorial, so maybe she set up the gunman Perhaps she entrusted Diane with a secret, and she thought it was passed on to Jared somehow? With Detective Kane being around, Jensen wants to wrap this case up as soon as possible.  
  
Jensen’s hanging out in Jared’s room when he feels the tell-tale breeze snapping across his face as a chill settles in his bones. He wishes that spirits would emit feelings of  _warmth_  sometimes because this whole chilly atmosphere thing is a little old now. They’re only in Jared’s room so that he can pack up some of his things, but Jensen’s wanted an excuse to come to the house and now he’s got his chance.  
  
“ _I remembered something_ ,” Diane says without any preamble. “ _About that night. Not the whole series of events but it’s coming together slowly. I remember seeing blonde hair...and my locket? I saw them in the passageway_.” He’s momentarily distracted by the blood patch on her dress; it’s starting to fade. Huh. Jensen’s never seen anything like this before. He wonders if the fact that she’s connected to Jared means anything. Perhaps his abilities are heightened because he’s emotionally connected to her somehow? He has to figure that out later. He tries to remember seeing or hearing about a locket or a passageway, but he can’t pull up a memory.  
  
“Blonde hair...” Jensen repeats slowly. Samantha springs into his mind. At this point, she’s the most viable suspect along with Matt and Amy, the only ones that they haven’t ruled out yet. “Can you remember anything else? Where is this passageway?” A door slams and Jensen looks up to see Jared looking at him oddly. His eyes are wide, almost as if he’s just coming to a startling realisation.  
  
“Hi, Jared,” Diane murmurs absently, brow furrowed in concentration. Jensen doesn’t pass the message on, and he doesn’t intend to. If there’s one thing that Diane’s death has reminded him, it’s that sometimes the dead don’t deserve to have a voice in the afterlife.  
  
Jared shifts slightly. “The passageway – it’s a narrow corridor linking our rooms. We never used it because I found it creepy but I guess it’s still there.”  
  
“And you’re just mentioning this now?” He doesn’t mean to sound harsh, but he and Chad spent hours going over the blueprints of the house and they didn’t see any passageways.  
  
Jared shrugs. “I honestly forgot all about it. I’m not sure if I remember how to open it.”  
  
“Bookshelf,” Diane says. “Seventh row. Nineteen books from the left.” When Jensen relays the message, Jared frowns but doesn’t say anything. Jensen doesn’t ask because he’s not in the mood for another conversation where he gets nothing but non-sequiturs and grunts. Diane stares at Jared for a long while until there’s a small crackling sound in the air and she vanishes.  
  
“Did you feel that?” Jared asks. “Is she gone?” Jensen nods, flinching slightly when a wave of pain hits him briefly. He ignores Jared’s look of concern and heads over to the bookcase, counting along on the seventh row until he comes to the nineteenth book. He pulls out and waits. There’s a lull as they stare at the bookcase, closely followed by a loud click. They back up as it swings backwards, revealing a small pathway. It’s dark and musty and Jensen can barely see anything.  
  
“You got a flashlight?” Jared reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, taps at the screen for a few seconds before the light appears. They step into it roughly at the same time, brushing against each other slightly. It’s about three feet wide, and covered in a thick lining of dust which has clearly been disturbed in recent times. There are small footprints and a smear of blood on the door leading into Diane’s room. Something glints in the corner of Jensen’s eye and he moves forward and crouches down to see what it is.  
  
It’s the locket. He stands up and hands it to Jared, who unlocks it with a sense of familiarity that tells Jensen that he's seen it before. “It was her birth mom’s. She only ever wore it on her birthday.” The pendant itself is an oval, and a rusty gold colour that belies the age of the metal, while the chain is newer and brighter, the golden hoops linking together perfectly as Jared lets it lie across his palm.  
  
“Was there anything in it?” Jensen asks, as he spies the empty crevice of the two halves of the locket. Jared looks as if he doesn’t want to answer the question, almost like he’s afraid.  
  
“She kept a key inside it,” he says eventually, his words slow and stilted. “It opened some kind of box. And I only know this because she caught me going through her stuff when I first moved in here. I was desperate to find out what she knew about my parents and I just went a little crazy.”  
  
Jensen can’t sense Diane’s presence nearby so he says what he’s wanted to say for a long time. “She had no right to keep that information for you.”  
  
Jared’s response is sad but succinct. “I know.”

  


  
“So you’re saying that the killer took the key that Diane kept in this locket, and that this key opens up some kind of lock box?” Chad says when they tell him what they found. “And we have no idea where this box is?” They’re back at Jensen’s house, with Chad’s ever-present laptop and folder of information. Jensen wonders what the hell Chad does with the files once they’re done with cases. For the first time he wonders if his part in their partnership is the easier part.  
  
“Actually, I know where it is,” Jared says. “It’s at Diane’s condo; whatever’s in there must be important if someone killed her over it.” He says it so casually that Jensen wouldn’t think that the box didn’t hold any significance to him if Jared didn’t admit that he’d been looking for what that key opened.  
  
“And with the whole blonde hair thing, we’re down to Amy and Samantha as our main suspects,” Jensen points out. “So the question is how do we find out who it is? Do we go to Kane or try and lure them out?”  
  
“Wouldn’t going it alone be a little dangerous?” Jared asks. “This person is a cold-blooded killer.”  
  
“It’s three against one,” Chad says. “We’ll be alright, and if we call the cops beforehand they could get us for obstructing an investigation or some trumped up charge like that. I’ve had about as much of Christian Kane that I can stomach. That guy couldn’t investigate his way into a paper bag, let alone solve a murder case. You know, he called me to ask about the weapon the day after he let Jared go. Apparently it’s infeasible that Jared’s prints wouldn’t be on a knife that they found in his room. Fucking amateurs. That’s why I didn’t want to work with him.”  
  
Jared shrugs and runs a hand through his hair. “Whatever. I’ll just be glad to be free of all this mess when we’ve figured out who it is.”  
  
“What are your plans for when this is done?” Jensen asks. It’s meant to be general question, but even he can hear the way it sounds like a loaded question, the ‘ _what’s going to happen with us?_ ’ heavily implied, although unspoken.  
  
“Finding my birth parents, I guess, seeing what the deal is there,” Jared replies. “And if that goes south, I gotta figure out what the hell I’m going to do for work.”  
  
“What are you going to do with all the money and estate that Diane left you?” Chad asks.  
  
“I haven’t decided yet,” Jared says. “I might keep the condo, just because it seems stupid to give that up when I plan on sticking around for a while.” Jensen’s not proud of the way his head snaps up so quickly that he hears something crack. He shares a look with Jared but neither of them says anything. The moment is only broken by Chad clearing his throat and asking what they’re going to do about Diane’s murderer.  
  


  
They go with the ‘luring the killer plan’; they get Danneel to inform Jeff that she has a box of Diane’s that she can’t get into and leave Jeff to do the rest. By the end of the evening Danneel’s reported back: both Amy  _and_ Samantha asked her about the box. With their plan set in motion, they take up their positions. The condo is dark and silent; only illuminated by the porch light streaming through the windows, perfectly highlighting the box from where it sits on the coffee table. Jensen think leaving it there is slightly obvious, but both Chad and Jared had both reasoned that the killer was probably so desperate to see what was inside that they wouldn’t care. So he finds himself, next to Jared, hiding behind the couch. Chad’s somewhere else, ready to become the element of surprise should they need him to.  
  
“Danneel’s pissed that she’s stuck waiting in the car with Kane,” Jared says quietly as he pockets his phone. “She’s texting me a running commentary. Apparently we’re about to receive a visitor. She and Chris are on standby if we need any help.”  
  
As Jensen starts to respond, the sound of glass shattering fills the room and the back door is wrenched open and slammed shut hastily – almost as if the person doesn’t care about being caught. Jensen wonders if they haven’t misread the situation. Footsteps sound and Jensen grabs onto Jared’s arm as his heart starts to pound slightly. The footsteps become louder and closer and Jensen can tell that the intruder is moving around the living room. Jared sits up and peeks over the back of couch, dragging Jensen up with him from where they’re still connected. They wait until the person has the box in their hand and Jared yells, “Chad, now!” The lights flick on and they stand, finding themselves facing a figure clad in all-black. Jensen can’t help staring wordlessly as Samantha Smith turns around to face them. He’s hit by a sudden feeling of  _wrongness_ ; he can’t really explain it but he just  _knows_  somehow. He knows who she is. She looks completely shell-shocked, and Jensen can practically smell the defeat pouring off her in waves as she seems to shrink before them.  
  
“It wasn’t her. She didn’t kill Diane,” Jensen says, unable to control the words from tumbling out of his mouth. “She was the one who went back when you were in the bathroom. She took the cell phone.”  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Samantha eyes them warily, blatantly scanning the room for possible exits. “This isn’t what it looks like, okay. There’s something of mine in the box and I need it. That’s why I’m here…and fine. You know what fine. Yes, I took her stupid locket and stole the key - but she was still alive when I left her room.” Jensen wishes he could persuade her to remain silent but it’s too late. He can’t stop her from making a terrible mistake; she’s determined her own fate.  
  
“We found the locket discarded in a secret pathway between mine and Diane’s rooms,” Jared says in a calm tone though, Jensen can feel how tense and rigid Jared really is. “Along with traces of blood.”  
  
Chad takes a step forward. “You might as well come clean now. Jensen says that you didn’t kill her and, luckily for you, I’m inclined to believe him, but if you know something, you have to tell us now.” Jensen bites at his lip as emotions war on her face. He almost feels sorry for her, sympathetic at her desperation to conceal the truth. However, there’s only so long that you can avoid secrets being revealed, and Samantha’s time is up.  
  
“Look, me and Diane weren’t exactly best friends but I liked her,” Samantha says. “That’s all I have to say.”  
  
“Open the box.” They all turn to stare at Jared whose face is scarily blank. Samantha’s bold exterior falters once again and guilt flashes across her face. Jensen can see the exact moment where she gives up. She walks over and hands Jared the small key.  
  
“You do it.” Chad mouths ‘what the fuck?’ at Jensen, but he ignores the other man, watching as Jared wastes no time in opening the box, doing so with slow, controlled movements, as if it’s the least desirable thing he’s ever had to do. They all watch as the lock clicks and the box opens. From what Jensen can see there’s just a sheath of papers, but then Jared pulls out what looks like a hospital tag and a Polaroid picture, and his intuition is proved right.  
  
“Explain.” Jared’s voice is cold, devoid of all emotion and Jensen has to fight the urge to go over there and comfort him. There’s no doubt in his mind that Jared would probably flip the fuck out so he stays where he is.  
  
“I fell pregnant when I was 14,” Samantha says wearily. “I grew up with an aunt of mine and she never was around much, so no one knew, not my parents, certainly not the father but I knew Diane, she used to babysit when my aunt was out and she found out and…she helped me.” Her explanation doesn’t make much sense but Jared’s words from the day they heard the voicemail that she left Diane filter back into Jensen’s mind suddenly.  
  
 _“It must be something to do with Jeff. He and Samantha go way back, maybe Diane found something out and she wanted her to come clean?”_ Another glance at Chad tells Jensen that he’s also reached the same conclusion.  
  
“Why would she help you?” Jared asks, apparently determined to drag every last ounce of the truth from her mouth.  
  
Samantha pulls off the black cap that she’s wearing and takes a deep breath. “Because Jeff was the father. She understood my not wanting to tell him at first, but eventually she started saying that I had to tell him and that she couldn’t keep lying. When we got back together, she got even more persistent.”  
  
“I didn’t ask for your life story, and quite frankly, I don’t care that much,” Jared says slowly. “It all makes sense now. Why she wanted me to be all buddy, buddy with Jeff. He’s  _my_  father. And…you’re…”  
  
“I’m your  _mother_ ,” Samantha says brokenly. “I know that you’ll probably never forgive me, but I wanted to come and see you but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. In all of these years I’ve been too much of a coward and I’m sorry.”  
  
Jared snorts in disbelief. “So, you knew where I was all along? This gets better. My father  _hates_  me and my mother is a lying bitch. I really lucked out in the family department, didn’t I?”  
  
“Jared…” Jensen can’t help trying to intervene.  
  
“No!” Jared shakes his head violently. “She’s been living in the house for  _months_ , months and she never said anything. She made Diane lie to me over and over again, she was the reason why me and her fought on the day she died. She…I can’t even look at her anymore. I want absolutely  _nothing_  to do with you.” Without another word, Jared turns on his heels and leaves, slamming the front door shut behind him.  
  
“I didn’t mean for him to find out like this,” Samantha says. “And, God, how the hell am I going to tell Jeff?” Jensen and Chad both stare at her wordlessly, unsure what to do next. This doesn’t have anything to do with them, but they’re both always going to be on Jared’s side. There’s nothing they can do for her.  
  
“Uh, I’m gonna go sweep up the glass by the back door,” Chad says, before disappearing. Jensen silently curses Chad for leaving him alone with Samantha. He fully understands Jared’s reaction but try as he might, he can’t help feeling a little sympathetic towards her.  
  
“I was going to come clean eventually,” she says softly. “I just wasn’t ready yet.”  
  
“I get that,” Jensen says. “But given that you’ve stood by and allowed Jeff to demean Jared at every opportunity he gets, you can’t blame Jared for being angry. He finally thought that he was free of Jeff, now that there was no obligation to try and get along with him, now that Diane wasn’t around to try and push them together.”  
  
“And now, they’re inextricably connected and that’s all my fault.” Jensen doesn’t have the heart to tell her that she’s not wrong, so he remains silent.  
  
~  
  
Jared doesn’t want to talk about it. He pushes himself into trying to find dirt on Amy and eventually he does.  
  
“So, you know how I’m going through the tapes to see how many times Jeff helped himself to my safe?” Jared doesn’t bother with a greeting after walking into Jensen’s house. Chad jerks upwards from where he’s been dozing off on the couch, blinking rapidly before becoming alert.  
  
“Yes,” Jensen says when Jared looks at them expectantly. Quite frankly, he’s more than ready for this case to be over. They’ve concluded that Amy and Matt are the most likely murderers and that prospect had been a little morbid for the three of them, and they had no way to prove it. What was the motive? Jared apparently had the answer.  
  
“Amy was cheating on Matt,” Jared says. “And my desk was apparently one of their preferred locations.” Jensen shudders. “Yeah, that was my reaction too.”  
  
“Okay, but why would she kill Diane over that?” Chad asks. “  
  
“Diane had a copy of the security tape,” Jared says. “I saw that she accessed it, a week before she died. She either must have suspected Amy, or she caught her somehow.”  
  
“And she threatened to tell Matt and voila, Amy stabbed her?” Jensen surmises. “There’s only one problem with that theory. Someone tried to poison her. And also, who was it that tampered with the security tapes at the house?”  
  
"You know, it's a shame that I didn't get to the tapes first." The three of them almost share identical startled looks as a female voice sounds from the hallway. Jensen looks up to see Amy standing in the living room doorway, holding a gun. Well, she's  ** _pointing it at them_**. Which is different? He thinks. He's not sure. No one has ever pointed a gun at him before; he's a little frazzled and scared. In hindsight, Jensen realises that having his house be his workplace might be a stupid idea because she probably didn't have to go far to find them.  
  
"So you killed Diane?" Jared says in a remarkably calm tone. The cadence of his voice helps to soothe Jensen a little; he has no idea how Jared isn't freaking the fuck out right now. Even Chad is looking a little green.  
  
"I did what  ** _he_**  couldn't finish," Amy says. Matt steps into the room behind her, with a less than pleased look on his face. He doesn't look like he's enjoying this, whereas there's no mistaking the crazed look on Amy's face. She waves the gun at Matt and beckons for him to join them and he practically scrambles towards them, sitting next to Jared on the couch.  
  
"So you're the mastermind?" Jared snorts. "You couldn't even manage my books properly. You're not really an accountant are you?"  
  
Amy shrugs, as she levels the gun at them. "I never was any good at math, but you Morgans love to keep it in the family. You're all as despicable and greedy as each other. Even  ** _you_**." The emphasis is aimed at Jared, who doesn't even flinch.  
  
Jensen finally finds his voice. "What do you mean by that? It's not like Jared was ever accepted by the Morgans. He's nothing like them."  
  
"He stayed!" Amy screams. "And collected hand-outs. Sure, he'll make you believe that he ran that stupid company and paid his own way but Diane saved his ass every fucking week and he just let her. He could have left but no, he stayed so he could spend their money and have an easy life."  
  
"Unlike your father, right?" Chad says quietly. "I knew I recognised you from somewhere." Everyone turns to look at Chad and then back at Amy.  
  
"Maybe one of you does actually have brains," she says. "He's right. My name is isn't Amy. I'm Carter Matthews’ daughter." Jensen's sure that whatever blood left in Matt's face vanishes right there and then. He looks as pale as a sheet, almost as if he's ready to keel over right away.  
  
"The guy who sued the Morgan Hotel Company?" Jared says with a frown. "Didn't they pay him a whole lot of money to make him go away?"  
  
"Does anyone want to clue me in?" Jensen asks, because he would like to have the full facts while someone is waving a gun in his face.  
  
Chad clears his throat quietly. "Back in the late 70s, the cops caught wind of a huge cocaine smuggling ring happening in the hotel - the first one in New York City. In order to keep the press away, the Morgans supposedly paid off the cops. They fired everyone who worked on that floor. Long story short, the workers tried to sue, but no one would take their case, so the Morgans weren’t taken to task."  
  
"They bankrupted my father;  _destroyed_  him."  
  
Jared sighs. "Yeah, okay, we get it. He was hard done by. You felt hard done by. You killing Diane doesn't make sense."  
  
"He wasn't just hard done by! He was desperate to provide for our family, and now he's doing time for some stupid robbery that he was barely a part of," Amy spits out. "He’s probably going to die in prison. My mother couldn't take the shame and she killed herself. Me and my brothers grew up without parents - and I wanted to get what was owed to me."  
  
"She thought that we'd get money from Diane in her will," Matt says shakily. "I was the one who put the poison in her tea, but I came to my senses and knocked over the mug after she’d taken a few sips and got the hell out of there."  
  
"That's why the level of hemlock in her blood was low." Chad looks like he really wants to update his case files and Jensen is glad that he manages to stay still.  
  
"Came to your senses?" Amy turns on Matt with a vicious glare. "Did you strain something? Do you even know why I wanted Diane gone in particular? She caught me fucking your best friend."  
  
"I...what?!" Matt splutters. "That's absurd." Jensen can tell that the general thought in the room at the moment is that Matt isn’t very bright. He almost feels sorry for him.  
  
Amy raises an eyebrow. "Is it?"  
  
"Even if that's the case," Matt says, "You were so insistent. You made it seem like it was about the money."  
  
"It was at first, but then I overheard Diane dictating her new will," Amy says. "And she had the nerve to  _threaten_  me. It was either get rid of her, or lose my chance of getting anything. Remember that pre-nup that you tore up?" Jensen catches movement from the corner of his eye and he turns to see that Jared's standing up.  
  
"Sit down," Amy says coldly. "Now."  
  
"No, not if it means that we have to listen to more of your bullshit." Jared sounds like he’s just  _done_. With the situation; with everything, and Jensen can’t blame him. However, Amy’s still holding a gun and Jared’s not Superman.  
  
"Jared, maybe you should do what she says." Jensen does his best to diffuse the situation.  
  
"What? Do you want to hear any more of this?" Jared says angrily. "She killed Diane. Case solved. She killed someone who maybe would have understood what it was like growing up without parents around; she took away family from people who know what it's like. I have no interest in what she has to say."  
  
"Matt is the biological Morgan child," Amy says. "And you're going to call your lawyer right now and turn over everything to him."  
  
"Uh, I don't think you can jus--” Chad starts to speak but Amy cuts him off almost immediately.  
  
"Shut the fuck up." Chad quietens quickly and in any other situation, Jensen would laugh at his friend's contrite expression. Jared is seemingly undeterred by her brash words because he moves even closer until his chest is practically touching the barrel of the gun.  
  
"Get out of my way, Amy," he says. "Or pull the trigger, if you think you have the guts." That gets Jensen on his feet. He knows how much being shot at affected Jared, after the memorial and in light of finding out who his parents are, it’s obvious that Jared’s not okay.  
  
"Jared, you can't just..." He trails off as Jared turns to level a glance in his direction. There's no fear in his eyes and that helps to calm Jensen down a little. He doesn't know what Jared's endgame is, just that it's probably a lot more preferable that Amy's.  
  
"Don't try and play mind games with me," Amy seethes. "If I kill you, Richard gets the money. But if I wound you, I can still get you to sign everything over to Matt."  
  
"You might want to turn the safety off first," Jared says. Amy frowns and then glances down at the gun. Her momentary distraction is all the leverage that Jared needs to wrench the gun from her hands and toss towards the couch. Jensen catches it with one hand and stands, beckoning Chad and Matt to follow. Amy is still struggling with Jared as they escape into the hallway.  
  
"Call Kane," he barks, not waiting before he steps back in to help Jared with Amy. There's a glint, but it vanishes just as Jared manages to pin Amy's hands behind her back. Jensen spots one of Chad's discarded ties lying on the floor, by his bookcases and he picks it up and tosses it to Jared, who leans down and fastens her wrists. The whole time, Amy is screaming threats and barbs and Jensen kind of wishes they could gag her.  
  
"How are we going to prove that she was the one who killed Diane?" Jared asks.  
  
"I can confirm everything to the police." Matt steps in, his face is pale and sweaty; he looks terrified  
  
"And I recorded the whole thing on my phone," Chad says. "Little miss over here forgot that the first rule of holding someone hostage at gunpoint is to cut off all forms of communication."  
  
"Fuck you," Amy growls. "I'm going to make sure that every last one of you pays for this."  
  
Thankfully, the load roar of sirens is enough to drown out the rest of her speech.

 

## 

  
Amy is arrested and charged with first degree murder, while Matt is charged with attempted first degree murder and aiding and abetting. Apparently they’ll both be facing the death penalty, but Jared doesn't see Jeff allowing things to go that far. If there’s one thing that Jeff has left, it’s the weight and social bearing of his family name. With Megalyn no longer on board, the press runs wild with the news and Amy’s mug shot is plastered in every tabloid and on every gossip site and the paparazzi start swarming around like bees. Jared observes it all quietly, unable to get rid of the numbness that’s been invading him since the police dragged a screaming Amy away. He’s not sure how to feel. It’s one thing for him to have to deal with the loss of Diane. Finding out that he’s been living with his biological father for  _years_  is just...almost too much to bear. There’s history there, and it can’t be erased. Try as they might, he and Jeff are never going to resolve things properly. Even if they do put aside their mutual dislike, they are always going to remember, always going to stop and think ‘ _I used to hate that guy_ ; and Jared’s not sure that he can deal with that, especially if Jeff stays with Samantha (who’s been charged with failing to report a crime), because Jared definitely can’t deal with that. At least not now; somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that he’s not going to be able to just forget that exists, or that knowing who his parents are is something he’s wanted all his life. He  _can’t_  forget and that’s the problem.

Jared next sees Jensen at Diane’s grave, holding a bunch of flowers, looking as if he’s surprised to see him here. They haven’t spoken a lot since everything has happened because Jared can’t bear it at the moment. The anger and pain he feels could easily make him say or do something that he’ll regret and he doesn’t want it to come to that. Jensen’s too close to everything that’s happened, too involved in everything, and Jared doesn’t want to push him away, but the trouble is that he might just be doing that anyway. Letting Jensen in would be easy, a welcome break from drinking until he passes out and spending most of his day in a dazed stupor after puking the alcohol up. It would be so easy, but sooner or later all of Jared’s issues would chip away at them, threaten to break them and he can’t allow that to happen, not after everything.

“I, uh, was just at the house seeing Diane,” Jensen says when he’s level with Jared. “She’s gone now. She didn’t seem too surprised about Amy, and I…couldn’t bring myself to ask about you. I didn’t feel like it was my place and as much as I wish you could have asked some questions, it would be too late.”

Jared doesn’t really want to hear this, but if there’s anything that he’s learnt from all of this, it’s that sometimes in life you have to do things you don’t want to do in order to be able to move on. So he listens as Jensen tells him that the blood stain on her dress vanished just before she transcended into her after life. Listens as Jensen tells him that any anger he's harbouring towards her is pointless.

"It's not a case of anger anymore," Jared says eventually. "It's about morals and doing what's right for your  _family_. She should have told me! And I can't just forgive and forget because she's dead. You  _can't_  ask me to do that. Not here." He places the flowers down, touches the headstone once and starts to walk away. They buried her in the garden of the house, next to Dean and Victoria, hence why Jensen is freaking out like he did near that cemetery.

Jensen casts a glance towards Diane's headstone and nods silently. He moves to follow Jared, eventually joining him on one of the garden bench overlooking the sprawling green acres that the house lies on. They're still quite far out from the house, so they can't be seen or heard and Jared's glad. What he's about to say is for Jensen's ears only and hard enough to spit out, let alone with an audience.

"I know that I haven't been in contact lately, and that you're worried, but I need space, Jensen. Away from you, Chad, hell, everything." The calls, the messages, they've got to stop. I can't deal with  _us_  right now. Not if we want to go anywhere in the future."

"I understand that, Jared, you know that I do, but you also have to understand the fact that people  _worry_  about you. We care, and I'd rather call you million times and make you mad about it than not bother to track you down that all."

Jared smiles for the first time that day. It's small, his lips barely upturning, but it is something.

"You're right," he tells Jensen and I'm sorry that I've been avoiding you, it's just that I've been..."

"Drinking yourself into oblivion?" Jensen says. "Yeah, we figured as much. Chad said your drunken path of destruction was long overdue. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s no fun to drink alone?”

“Who says I was doing it alone?” He  _has_  but there’s no harm in trying to save face. Feeling sorry for himself  _by_  himself is kind of pathetic after all.

“Chris has been keeping tabs on you, so...he does,” Jensen says. “Like, I said, we were worried. You confronted someone who was threatening to shoot you, that’s not exactly rational behaviour.”

Jared snorts. “It wasn’t exactly a cry for help either. I was trying to get all of us out of a tight situation. Would you rather have spent hours sitting there, letting her toy with us and tell the extended version of her sob story?”

“No,” Jensen says. “But she could easily have put a bullet in you and we’d be having a whole other conversation. The kind where I’m the only one who can  _see_  you.” He sounds hurt and upset leaving Jared pondering what he can say to make things right. He doesn’t regret what he did, because listening to Amy would have surely sent him over the edge. If anyone can understand her, it’s him, and while he doesn’t even understand watching your life crumble around you, he knows what it’s like to wake up to the broken pieces. Revenge wasn’t what drove her to the brink, it was  _greed_  and he was not going to sit there and pretend that it wasn’t. Now her brothers (wherever they may be) are on their own and she’s been left with nothing. That’s not the only reason why he stood up though, and he decides to let Jensen know once and for all.

“She wasn’t going to put in a bullet in  _me_ ,” Jared replies eventually. “I was too valuable. So yeah, maybe I could have stayed in my seat, and listened to her say whatever the fuck, but I chose not to in order to protect my best friend and...the person that I’m in love with. And, hell, even Matt to a lesser extent, he looked like he was about ready to throw up.”

“Nice deflection,” Jensen says, elbowing Jared gently. His smile fades after a few seconds. “You could have just told me that before I laid in to you.

Jared raises an eyebrow at him. He’s not even sure what he and Jensen are. Boyfriends, partners, not-quite boyfriends? “Haven’t we had the whole ‘I’m not good at expressing my feelings’ conversation before?”

“I get that, but you can’t just play that card every single time,” Jensen says. “We’ll have to work on that later though. Right now, I think that we should get out of here.” Jared casts an eye back at the area of grass where Diane’s headstone lies and he knows that this is it. It’s goodbye. The end of something special, and...maybe the beginning of the rest of his life. He stands up, only just noticing the gold plated sign affixed to the bench that reads:

_Diane Marie Morgan_

_1966 - 2014_

He brushes his finger against it gently before looking away, his attention diverted by the shadow of a bird flying past them up ahead. He stares at it, watching its wings flap slowly, as it glides away, further and further into the distance. He feels a weight in his chest lifting and he can  _feel_  that there will be brighter days ahead. They probably won’t come tomorrow, or next week but they’ll arrive eventually because life goes on. Pain fades away. People come and go but family is forever and Diane’s always going to be in his heart.

Jensen’s watching him quietly when he turns back to him, suddenly itching to leave. Jared stretches out his hand and says, “Let’s go.” He still needs his space, still needs to sort out everything in his head, his life. He needs to make sure that he’s worth Jensen’s time, that he’s not going to jump into anything before he’s ready. Jensen’s smile is soft and sad, but he takes Jared’s hand and gets up, not missing a beat before they start to walk away. Neither of them break the silence on their way back to the house. Jensen looks as if he’s deep in thought and Jared’s trying to put everything into perspective. He owes it to Jensen to put everything he has into their relationship and right now he still wakes up to broken pieces, but all of that’s about to change.

It’s time for Jared to piece the puzzle back together and have the life he’s always wanted; he just needs to figure out where to start.


	9. Epilogue

[ ](http://imgur.com/ppYAEB3)

  


##    
_Six weeks later_

  
Jensen's just finishing up with a client (a missing aunt who'd been buried in the backyard by her creepy neighbour) when Jared knocks on his office door. He and Chad have moved headquarters, not feeling comfortable working at his house since the whole gun-waving incident. Chad took off several weeks to recuperate and he'd come back with a tan, and beach blond hair so at least one of them got something good out of it. Jensen's ended up with a relationship that possibly only exists in his head and a penchant for triple checking that his doors in his house are dead bolted at night. He’s only seen Jared a handful of times since it all happened, which is understandable. Still, it’s been kind of hard to go on as if all of that stuff with Jared and the declarations of love never happened. Without feeling like Jared hasn’t been true to his word, like he hasn’t stayed.  
  
"Okay, so, I wrote this whole speech, in response to Chad telling me to stop stringing you along," Jared says without as much as a hello. Jensen's kind of used to it at this point. He leans back in his chair and lets Jared talk. "But, I shredded it and binned it before I drove over here. I realised that I’m tired of all of this."  
  
“Are you, really, Jared?” he snaps, feeling outraged that Jared’s come here to berate  _him_  of all people. “Because I feel like I should be the one who’s tired. You’ve been screwing around with my head since this started and I let you do it but I just can’t do it anymore. I’m not going to run around after you anymore. Either we’re done or we’re…”  
  
Jared blinks at him owlishly. “I didn’t mean I was tired of  _you_. But, uh, seems like you needed to get all of that out?”  
  
Jensen looks away sheepishly, suddenly feeling embarrassed about his outburst. “Yeah, sorry.”  
  
“No, you’re right; I’ve been a complete ass since you told me you liked me and I…that’s what I’m tired of. Feeling like I have to run away before someone gets too close. I’ve been scared that letting people in would mean that they’d just always have some excuse to leave, so I made sure that I was the one to leave and I’m so fucking tired of not being able to trust anyone and…despite everything, you’re still here.”  
  
“So, what are you saying?” Jensen asks, not daring to get his hopes up.  
  
“I’m saying that I want to give us a chance,” Jared replies a little breathlessly. “If you’ll have me?”  
  
“I wasn’t kidding around when I said that I loved you too.” Jensen goes for poetic, but Jared wants a more direct answer.  
  
“Is that a yes or no?”  
  
“It’s a yes, Jared,” Jensen says with a laugh. “I might be tired but I’m not ready to lie down and die yet.” Jared winces visibly at his choice of words and Jensen sobers up quickly. It’s not been all that long since Jared lost Diane and Jensen knows that Jared’s never going to be over it, no matter what happens with Jeff and Samantha, Diane’s always going to be the one who was his family. As much as Jensen didn’t really get their relationship, he’ll always remember the pain in Jared’s eyes and how much the two of them cared about each other.  
  
“She’s watching over you, you know?” Jensen says. “Before her…before her spirit moved on, she said she’d always watch over you and I see it. Or I can feel it. She’s with you all the time.”  
  
“I know.” Jared’s words are soft but genuine. Jensen’s not used to someone taking his words at face value without question, but Jared’s never once questioned his ability to see and feel things that he shouldn’t. Even Chad had been sceptical at first. “It’s just weird you know? She kept this huge secret from me and I should be mad at her. I  _should_ be, but I’m angry with someone else.” That someone else is Samantha, and Jensen’s not touching that topic with a ten foot pole, at least not yet. She’s been to his office a couple of times, asking if he can persuade Jared to talk to her but so far he’s refused. It’s not his place, no matter how much sympathy he has for her.  
  
“You know that I’ll always be here, no matter what happens you know that right?” Jensen doesn’t really care if he sounds needy or desperate; he just wants to be the one person that Jared can rely on. He doesn’t ever want to let him down.  
  
“Yeah,” Jared says a little absently, and then he seems to shake himself out of his funk, face brightening. “Are you done for the day? I think I promised you a ride on my bike not too long ago.”  
  
Jensen looks down at his work suit. “I’m not exactly dressed for a bike ride, Jared.” He’s technically not done either, but Chad can cover for him.  
  
“All you’re missing is a helmet,” Jared grins.  
  
“You’re insane,” Jensen replies with a chuckle. Jared winks at him, “It’s been said. Come on let’s go.”  
  
“What are you going to do about Jeff?” Jensen can’t help asking, as they leave his office. He’s a little curious. Jared had been pretty determined to find his birth parents before the truth had come out. Jensen wonders if Jared still wants to know his father, given that he knows that Jeff at least didn’t knowingly abandon him.  
  
“Jeff wants us to start afresh, start hanging out, apparently it’s what Diane would have wanted,” Jared’s fingers are gripping his keys tightly and Jensen regrets bringing this up seconds before he’s about to ride. “Not that he cared about that when she was alive. I haven’t really spoken to Samantha much. She and Jeff broke up. If my parents had turned out to be anyone but those two, I might have been ready to start mending fences and whatnot, you know? But I just…I wonder if it’s worth it? I know who they are now, and they’re not the perfect couple I always imagined they’d be. They’re human and flawed and I don’t know if I can handle that right now.”  
  
“Too much has happened,” Jensen says. “I understand. It just sucks that you were finally ready to find them and everything ended up being even more fucked up.” They’re not exactly eloquent words of comfort, but Jared gives him an appreciative smile.  
  
“Well…in some ways, I’m glad that I do kind of have a connection to Diane after all,” Jared explains. “Before I always just thought that she took pity on me, and just visited me because she had to – and maybe she did. But we were family right from the day I was born. I only wish that we could have talked about it….”  
  
“I’m sorry that I couldn't ask her before she, you know,” Jensen says as he eyes Jared’s bike warily. “But you can still talk to her. It might be a one sided conversation and make you feel a little stupid but it’ll help.”  
  
Jared nods. “Thanks. Should we get going now? I need to go and check that Danneel hasn’t burnt down the office or run Milo out of town, and then I’m going head to class.” Jared’s taking ‘shop classes, not that he needs them, but it’s a step in the direction that he wants to go in, and thanks to Diane, the world is Jared’s oyster. He takes the helmet in Jared’s hand and leans into kiss him, not caring that they’re standing in the middle of the street.  
  
“Ugh, get a room assholes,” Chad says as he walks past them and heads into the office building. Jensen detangles himself from Jared after one last kiss and stares down at the bike once again.  
  
“Promise me that we won’t fall off this thing?” he says, remembering that time when he was eleven and his brother accidentally tipped his bicycle over by the handlebars. “You’re kind of delicate, so you should probably drive at a reasonable pace – i.e. your version of slow.”  
  
“I am not delicate,” Jared protests as he whacks Jensen’s arm playfully. “But I did just strike a happy medium, so I promise not to go too fast.” It takes Jensen a short while to get the joke but when he does, he groans and rolls his eyes. He can guarantee that Chad’s made every single medium joke there is in existence, he does not need Jared to start as well.  
  
“How long have you wanted to make that joke?” he asks. Jared sticks his tongue out and waggles his eyebrows but he doesn’t answer the question.  
  
Instead he says, “I’m sure you’ll be able predict any bumps in the road that I need to avoid, right?” He climbs on and beckons Jensen to follow suit. Once Jensen is pressed behind him tightly, Jared reaches back and hands him the spare helmet, and then starts the engine.  
  
“I’m a medium, not a  _psychic_ ,” Jensen replies once he’s fastened the helmet, raising his voice so that Jared can hear him over the roar of the vehicle.  
  
“Someday you’re going to have to explain the difference, ‘til then, make sure you hold on tight!”  
  
Jensen laughs as Jared lets out an exaggerated whoop and pulls away from the curb. He likes the idea of there being ‘some days’ in their future.

**Fin.**


End file.
